NAC intensifies fight against HIV/AIDS

SUKOLUHLE NDLOVU IN GWERU

The National Aids Council (NAC) has intensified the fight against HIV/AIDS by empowering and equipping women and adolescent girls with knowledge and financial capacity to protect themselves from the disease.

NAC Aids coordinator for Gweru district, Petros Mazengwa, said gender inequalities such as lack of knowledge and power imbalances between men and women as well as gender norms continue to put women and girls at the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.

“We have upscaled programmes to address structural issues like inequalities in societies. In our quest to end HIV/AIDS by 2030, we have put in place interventions to address these like the DREAMS program which aims at empowering adolescents with knowledge so that they are in better positions to protect themselves from contracting HIV infections,” Mazengwa said.

He added: “The DREAMS programme also aims at financially supporting adolescents so that they can go to school and have their own careers which will enable them to be economically empowered and viable as this puts them at less risk of contracting HIV.”

He also said they have come up with interventions to address discrimination against marginalised communities.

“Discrimination is one of the reasons slowing the fight against HIV in communities hence we have also come up with interventions against stigmatisation in communities.

“We have started a programme of making sure that sex workers get all the services they require at all costs. These programmes will then make our fight against HIV/AIDS bear fruits,” Mazengwa said.

He said that they have also appointed a representative in every ward in district in Gweru in efforts to reduce HIV infections and increase uptake of services like testing, condom dispensing amongst other services.