NGO in HIV/AIDS sensitisation efforts

An American NGO operating in the Central African Republic (CAR) has donated HIV/AIDS testing materials to six Roman Catholic dioceses in the country, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported. The donation, from the International Partnership for Human Development (IPHD), also included medicines for HIV-related opportunistic diseases and video sets for the screening of sensitisation messages about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The recipients the Archdiocese of Bangui, the dioceses of the provincial towns of Mbaiki, Berberati, Bambari and Kaga-Bandoro, respectively 107 km southwest, 186 km northwest, 305 km north, 385 km east and 342 km north of the capital, Bangui. Each received a video set. They also received medicines for HIV-related opportunistic diseases. The NGO has also rehabilitated and furnished the headquarters of Caritas Centrafrique, a Roman Catholic NGO located at Centre Jean XXIII in Bangui. The radio quoted IPHD Executive Director Veran Cornway as saying that his organisation would continue to help Caritas through its social and health projects. In May, IPHD funded the building of a food-security bank in the southwestern province of Lobaye, and recently distributed soya beans, rice and oil to three hospitals in Bangui. Meanwhile, two other NGOs, the Nour El Aya in partnership with Amis d'Afrique, undertook door-to-door HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns in Lobaye Province, an official told IRIN on Sunday. The coordinator of the Muslim NGO El Nour Aya, Cheick Moussa, said the NGOs carried out the campaign in towns of Boda and Mongoumba in Lobaye, where the residents were briefed on the different means of HIV transmission and means of prevention and protection. "We should break the pernicious silence on HIV/AIDS among Muslims," he said. "HIV/AIDS should no longer be a taboo." He added that the awareness campaigns called for fidelity, abstinence and use of condoms as prevention and protection means against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The campaigns were funded by Amis d'Afrique, with a contribution from El Nour Aya, he said. He added that El Nour Aya would soon undertake similar campaigns in other towns in Lobaye, and expected donors and other NGOs involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS to help.