By Mohammed Ibrahim
Residents of Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State have commended UNICEF’S testing and Counselling project on HIV and AIDS in the area.
The residents say prior to the project majority of their adolescents, lack knowledge on HIV and AIDS.
The village Head of Angwan Sarki, under Magajin Gari in Birnin Gwari Local Government of Kaduna, Aliyu Shehu Aliyu, said this, urging youths in the community to go for HIV test to know their status.
He said it’s very important for youth from the age of 18 to know their status, so as to remain safe.
The village Head who gave the advice at a programme on Adolescents and Young People (AYP) / Prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) Testing and counselling, organized by UNICEF, Kaduna office at Emir’s Road Town Hall in Birnin Gwari Town.
The Adolescents & Young People (AYP) intervention programme is one of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) supported programmes that aims at scaling up HIV combination in terms of prevention, treatment and care services for adolescents and young people, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers in Kaduna Rural communities.
The programme is operational in seven Local Governments Areas (LGAs) of Chikun, Igabi, Lere, Kagarko, Birnin-Gwari, Jaba & Jema’a of the State.
It seeks to among others increase the number of adolescents and young persons (10-24) years who know their HIV status from 10% to 40% in 7 LGA’s by December 2018, increase the proportion of sexually active adolescents (15-19) years using condoms from 30% to 50% in 7 LGA’s by December 2018.
To Increase the percentage of HIV positive adolescents (10-24) years initiated on Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) from 1% to 21% in the 7 LGA’s by December 2018 and to also increase the number of primary/secondary schools providing Family Life and HIV Education (FLHE) from 25% to 45% in 7 LGAs by December 2018.
The UNICEF has been working in collaboration with the Kaduna State AIDS Control Agency (KADSACA), and other partners to reduce and even eliminate HIV to its barest minimum in this LGAs.
The village Head explained that youths from the community are now enlightened on ways to avoid and prevent themselves from HIV /AIDS than they were in previous years.
“I’m happy that the programme was brought to train and educate our youth in Birnin Gwari and in community because we have Adolescents that needed to know more about the disease. . My appeal to youth is to educate other youths that knows nothing about HIV on how to prevent themselves.
“Youth needs to know their HIV status and all other ways to prevent themselves from HIV. I in particular benefited from the information received from the AYP programme,” he said
The village Head also said there are about 60 Adolescents that were trained as AYP Ambassadors that are equally expected to cascade the knowledge acquired to their peers from neighbouring communities.
An AYP participant 24-year-old Isa iliyasu who also said the training changed his knowledge of HIV commended the organisers of the sensitization.
“Now I know my status which made me happy. I think it’s important for Adolescents to know their HIV status. People still need more enlightenment on the virus in rural areas
“Our lives have changed with this programme as we now know and understand more about HIV /AIDs,” he said.
The Young man further expressed satisfaction on the programme as he called on other youths to always make themselves available for HIV testing.
It was gathered that the trained 60 AYPs 40 females and 20 males probably lack full knowledge of the virus until when they were taught.
On Prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIC/AIDS,Hauwa’u Abdulhamid a nurse said expected mothers from the town and neighbouring villages do visit health facilities for antenatal.
“Women are coming in large number for antenatal and we are educating them. In a week we do have up to 30 women coming for antenatal but the number is increasing. We do give them head talks and counsel them before they undergo HIV test,” he said.
It was gathered that other women from neighbouring villages without facilities do come to Birnin Gwari town health facility for antenatal services.
