GHEI Celebrates World AIDS Day

GHEI Community Health Worker (CHW), Lydia Ampomaning, demonstrates how to use a condom to a group of giggling adolescents at GHEI’s World AIDS Day celebration. Over 200 people, including Humjibre’s Chief and Elders, gathered at Humjibre Community Centre for this year’s festivities, where a DJ kicked off the event at 6:30pm. By 7:30, the hall was packed. GHEI Program Manager Clement Donkor opened by explaining that stigmas and misconceptions still run rampant in Humjibre and around the world. He urged community members to avoid spreading the disease by using condoms and to fight the stigma which prevents so many from seeking testing and treatment. Following his comments, a series of short films were shown, ranging from a cartoon illustration of the AIDS virus attacking the body and a re-enactment showing a person getting tested for HIV.

Humjibre CHWs moved through the crowd demonstrating proper condom use in small groups and addressing audience questions. One high school student, Stephen, commented that the videos answered some of the questions he had about HIV/AIDS and how it is spread. Like many of the young people who attended, Stephen chose to remain on the outskirts of the crowd, but gradually migrated to the front when the CHWs began the condom demonstrations.

Select staff and CHWs managed two confidential condom distribution stations outside the event, allowing men and women to receive condoms in separate discreet locations. Over 800 condoms were distributed during the celebration, and all GHEI CHWs and Peer Educators received 26 condoms to distribute among people in the surrounding communities.

Humjibre’s Chief, Nana Kwadwo Twum II, closed the celebration by reminding people that HIV/AIDS remains both a global and a local problem. He urged people to protect themselves through abstinence and condom use. Thanking GHEI for its efforts to educate people and to promote HIV/AIDS awareness, he explained the importance of fighting diseases like HIV/AIDS in communities like Humjibre: “Reducing HIV leads to a healthier community, and a healthy community surely paves the way towards development.” Read more about how GHEI promotes HIV/AIDS prevention and sexual health in the Reproductive Health section of GHEI Programs page.


--Natalie Rich, GHEI Communications Director

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