Global Fund trains 65 on HIV/AIDS awareness

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria launched on Wednesday a 12-day HIV/AIDS awareness training programme for 65 people in the central town of Bambari, Central African Republic (CAR), state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported. The participants, who comprise local authority officials, NGO representatives and journalists in charge of rural media, are undergoing training on the implementation of awareness-raising activities among the population, acceptance of voluntary AIDS screening and provision of psychosocial care of HIV-positive people. The radio reported that the training programme was aimed at reinforcing the operational capacities of NGOs and journalists in dealing with the HIV/AIDS scourge. A representative of the management branch of the Global Fund, Marius Bogbata, was quoted as saying that after negotiations with CAR officials, the fund had agreed to provide anti-retrovirals (ARV) for people living with HIV in the country. Government estimates put the number of those living with HIV/AIDS in the country at 240,000. ARV treatment is beyond reach of many of these people, and civil servants who can afford the drugs are often frustrated by the government's delay and irregularity in payment of salaries. A similar training programme on the treatment of HIV-positive people ended on Wednesday in the northern town of Bossangoa, the radio reported.