Biketi Kikechi
5 September 2002
Nairobi — Three Ministers for Health from East Africa yesterday launched an Aids awareness campaign in Nairobi.
It aims at achieving a zero prevalence rate of Aids in the region.
Prof Sam Ongeri, the Kenyan Minister for Public Health, said the Celebrate Life Programme, will target people aged between 15 and 24. "As of now, 87 per cent of Kenya is HIV negative and we must at all costs ensure that they remain negative through frequent voluntary counselling and testing," said Ongeri.
The climax of the programme will involve live music performances by American rhythm and blues group Kool and the Gang among other artists in Nairobi, Kampala and Dar-Es-Salaam next month.
The campaign initiated by African Americans through the Africans Unite Against Aids Globally (AUAAG) forum, will raise money to set up Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) centres.
Ongeri said they expect multinational businesses in the region to contribute generously to the fund. "We will hold the festival at Carnivore Restaurant where each dinner table of 10 persons, will cost about Sh200,000," he said.
The Minister said Africans were now taking up their own initiative to stop the scourge, because western countries were not committed in their pledges. He said the biggest stigma facing Sub-Saharan African was the constant reminder by the West that it has 80 per cent of the worlds Aids cases.
Africans, he said must fight the stigmatisation by taking an initiative to stop further spread through voluntary testing and counselling.
Ongeri said all conferences that have been discussing effects of the Aids scourge in Africa, including the one going on in Johannesburg have been a complete waste of time, hence the need for home-grown solutions.
His Ugandan counterpart, Brigadier Jim Muhwezi, said the three countries must join forces because it was not possible to control cross-border infection. Uganda had achieved a 5.6 per cent prevalence rate, while Kenya had also reduced it drastically to 13 per cent.
Muhwezi said Western donor countries are not were not committed to helping Africans, because billions of shillings had been collected but not a dime had been released.
The Chairman and Chief Executive of AUAAG Mr Tiamo Ra'uf, an American, said there is a serious shortage of VCT centres in Africa.
He said African Americans were committed to ensuring that the black race does not become extinct through Aids.
He said once zero tolerance is achieved in Africa, it will also be cheaper to manage infected persons clinically.
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