St. Kitts and Nevis represented at HIV/AIDS Communication Workshop in Antigua
By Pauline Waruguru
Nevis Reporter-SKNVibes.com
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| St. Kitts-Nevis participants, Alecia Daniel Blake, Gardenia Destang-Richardson, Shana Howell |
CHARLESTOWN, Nevis - ST. KITTS-NEVIS is now better positioned to adapt a regional communication strategy to address HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination following a recently concluded coaching workshop organised by Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) held at the City View Hotel, Antigua.
In an interview shortly after the close of the workshop, Volderine Hackett, Senior Project Officer of PANCAP Coordinating Unit, said, “The overall goal was to empower National AIDS Programmes (NAPs) to develop their communication strategies by adapting the regional strategy. The exercise provided coaching consultation on how to develop the strategy.”
The workshop attracted participants from St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda and Montserrat. The regional communication strategy to address HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination in the Caricom region was designed by Dr. Sarah Gordon and Dr. Paloma Mohamed-Martin from Guyana coached the participants on April 3 and April 4 on how to adapt the regional strategy.
“The Unit, with Global Fund support, held consultations with senior communication experts drawn from the Unit, Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and CAREC and a regional communication strategy was developed to fight Stigma and Discrimination,” Ms. Hackett noted. ~~Adz:Right~~
According to Hackett, NAPs six islands in the OECS [St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, Monteserrat, St. Vincent, Dominica and St. Lucia] are earmarked to adapt the regional strategy.
Dr. Mohamed-Martin took participants through sessions that will enable individual countries represented at the workshop to develop their strategies by identifying activities that can advocate for and influence political policy and action, community action and individual behaviour change.
She said fear of discrimination prevents people from acknowledging they are HIV positive, fear of discrimination prevents people from seeking treatment upon diagnosis and fear of disclosure of, or suspicion of HIV status stops people with the disease from using condoms and from adopting other preventive behaviour.
“We hope that member countries will go back and finalise their local communication strategies,” Hackett said, while Dr. Mohamed-Martin encouraged the participants to complete their strategic plans and returning back to their countries.
She advised participants to be aware of the competition that is being posed by the Internet when they prepare media messages for youth, noting, “Youth are interested in content that has movement and always accessible. You have to find innovative ways of communicating messages especially sports where the youth usually congregate. Communication is the key, especially when we are talking about behaviour change.”
She called on media practitioners to transmit messages that portray persons living with HIV as wholesome persons. “People living with HIV are not a threat; they did not deserve to get HIV. They can live a productive life in an efficient way and they must not be blamed for their condition,” Dr. Mohamed-Martin said.
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| Dr. Paloma Mohamed-Martin, workshop facilitator and Antigua participants |
Montserrat participants
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