HIV/AIDS CAMPAIGNERS URGED TO FOCUS ON POOR, DRUG ADDICTS

Mr Mahama B. Mumuni, Deputy Coordinating Director for the Tolon
Kumbungu District on Thursday appealed to groups and individuals who
were engaged in the campaign to curb the HIV/AIDS pandemic to focus on
the poor and drug addicts as a means of reducing the scourge.

Mr Mumuni, who is also the District Focal Person on HIV/AIDS made the
appeal when he addressed the chiefs and people of Tolon in the
Tolon/Kumbungu District during the formal launch of Life Care
Foundation (LCF), an NGO operating in Tamale in conjunction with the
GARFUND to give education on the dangers of HIV/AIDS.

He said due to the poverty level in most communities sick persons
often relied on quack traditional practitioners who infect them with
various diseases.

Mr Mumuni urged the Ghana AIDS Commission to channel funds towards
reducing poverty particularly in the rural areas to reduce the spread
of the disease.

Mr Sulemana Baba Mohamed, Executive Director of LCF in a welcoming
address stressed the importance of chiefs and opinion leaders in the
influencing of the people to avoid immoral activities.

He said the founding of LCF was to complement the efforts of the
Tamale Municipal Assembly and the other 12 districts in the region to
educate the people on the need for the youth to stay away from
premarital sex.

He said the LCF would among other things embark on capacity building
through talks, seminars and workshops to enable the rural people to
understand their poor living standards and to initiate steps to reduce
the poverty situation.

Mr Alhassan Abubakari Baako, Tolon/Kumbungu District Chief Executive
(DCE) commended the Ghana AIDS Commission for funding NGOs to work in
the district with the view to reducing the spread of the pandemic.