How PLHIV won the war against stigma
Friday, December 09, 2016
In 2003, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Botswana Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (BONEPWA+) introduced a pilot project that sought to engage people openly living with HIV to capacitate teachers and learners in primary schools with vital HIV/AIDS and treatment information.
The project, ‘Ringing the Bell’ aimed to help the ministry contend with teachers, among them HIV positive ones, who were not comfortable with openly teaching about HIV/AIDS. The partnership recruited 30 HIV+ individuals who were attached to primary schools across the country and helped learners with understanding HIV/AIDS and Antiretroviral Therapy (ART).
The recent Vaccination Day in Motokwe, orchestrated through collaborative efforts between UNICEF, USAID, BRCS, and the Ministry of Health, underscores a commendable stride towards fortifying child health services.The painful reality as reflected by the Ministry of Health's data regarding the decline in routine immunisation coverage since the onset of the pandemic, is a cause for concern.It underscores the urgent need to address the...