Friday, October 27, 2006

CHARLESTOWN, Nevis: Minister of Health in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), Hensley Daniel, has called on various groups in Nevis to pool together to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS as the need for partnerships was critical in the fight against the disease.

Daniel’s comment came on Tuesday, during a one-day Mobilisation Workshop hosted by The Nevis HIV/AIDS Coordinating Unit of the Ministry of Health, under the theme “Building Effective Partnerships”

“The need for partnership is becoming even more critical because in Nevis as well as the other Caribbean countries we have these strong cultural norms which drive the epidemic and these strong cultural norms lead to early sexual initiation, early sexual debut, multiple sexual partners and massive stigma and discrimination. These cultural norms which promote and sustain early sexual debut, tell us that we have a real challenge on our hands to address HIV AIDS."

“So if we got together in Nevis and we put together a group of Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) and Community Based Organisations (CBO) and Faith Based Organisations (FBO), we are likely to be able to marshal and mobilise some resources for HIV AIDS. Of course these partnerships in HIV AIDS will help us in Nevis to fight AIDS with a new mindset which may be useful if we take a queue from the justice system where it says ‘You are innocent until proven guilty’. Maybe we need to take an approach that everybody is positive until proven negative,” the Health Minister said.

Daniel noted that the importance of the workshop should not be taken lightly, particularly when one considered the huge financial cost of HIV/AIDS to the society, its impact on the family, discrimination and stigmatisation, loss of the human resource, medication and hospitalisation.

Daniel remained hopeful that a number of partnerships would be forged at the participants NGO level at the end of the workshop and reminded the participants that there were a number of financial resources available at the regional and international levels for CBOs, FBOs and NGOs to benefit from HIV/AIDS.

“So I want to hear that we have established even a memorandum of understanding or a partnership whereby we could mobilise human and financial resources and I know that in our midst we have to take a shift and look at the assets that we have,” he said.

According to Andrea Nisbett, AIDS Coordinator in Nevis, though HIV/AIDS was perceived to be a health problem, it was a problem for everyone that resided in St Kitts and Nevis. She challenged participants to work together to form a partnership and to take ownership of the HIV/AIDS problem and to ensure that it does not escalate any further.

Participants from the workshop were drawn from a cross section of the Nevis public including social and church based groups, the private sector and the civil service.

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