Anti-HIV/AIDS communications strategy under consideration

Media experts and other specialists from across the Central African Republic began a three-day workshop on Monday to map out a national strategy for communicating HIV/AIDS-prevention messages. "I invite you to avail yourselves of this occasion to lay down communications strategies adapted both to the traditional and modern context of our country," Gabriel Jean Edouard Koyambounou, the minister of state for communications, told the participants. The 120 participants, comprising reporters of all the state and private media, provincial officials in charge of reproductive health, representatives of civil society and the church, are studying a document listing all the HIV/AIDS-preventive strategies implemented since 1984. A specialist in education and communications at the national anti-AIDS committee, Jean Firmin Fesseramatia, told IRIN that some strategies considered to be still relevant would be updated. Once adopted, the final document will be available to all actors dealing with HIV/AIDS prevention and care in the country. The national consultants from the Centre of Information-Education and Communication for Sexual Health among the Youth, a local NGO, drafted the document under review. The World Bank, through its International Development Agency, donated 4 million francs CFA (US $6,236.46) towards the holding of the workshop.