GOVT TO REVAMP FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMMES (PAGE 39, NOV 12)

THE Government will soon revamp family planning programmes and projects in the country under a Population Impact Project (PIP).
The move is aimed at keeping at bay the population of the country from exploding, which is currently around 20 million, as well as check the spread of HIV and AIDS.
A Member of the Council of State, Wulugunaba, Naa Prof. John S. Nabila, disclosed this at a multi-sectoral seminar on HIV for the leadership of identifiable social groupings of students of the University of Ghana, Legon on Saturday.
The leaders wanted to know why the Planned Parenthood and Family Planning, whose activities could effectively check the widespread attacks by HIV, had been dormant for the past years.
Prof. Nabila, who is also head of the Department of Geography and Resources Development of the University of Ghana, explained that the family planning programmes in the country became dormant for the past years because of the American policy which linked assistance to family planning to abstinence alone.
He said , however, since President Barack Obama came to power, he had reversed that policy for it created untold hardships for some vulnerable people across Africa.
He said countries such as Ghana that campaigned on abstinence alongside the use of condoms, could now qualify for assistance from the US to complement government's family planning programmes.
Prof. Nabila said the current generation, the future leaders, was dear to the nation’s development and economic sustainability and so every effort was being made to protect it from being decimated by HIV.
He said Ghanaians could not afford to be complacent because the HIV prevalence rate of 2.2 per cent was lower than the prevalence rates in neighbouring countries.
Prof. Nabila said another critical area that required attention was the spread of HIV and AIDS among female porters commonly known as 'kayayee', who return with the disease most times to rural areas after they had been infected in the cities.
The Associate Project Director of PIP, Prof E.O. Tawiah, who spoke on the topic: “Situation Analysis of HIV/AIDS in Ghana, said according to Sentinel Surveillance Reports of Ghana Aids Commission, the population of people suffering from HIV/AIDS stood at 249,145 in 2008.
He explained that women were the hardest hit with the spread of HIV/AIDS and their economic vulnerability greater if the husband died of AIDS, stressing that the burden of care in HIV/AIDS households affected by HIV/ AIDS fell on women and their children.
Prof. Tawiah said because of their subordinate position to men, women found it extremely difficult to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS.
Other resource persons who delivered papers at the seminar included Dr Stephen Kwankye, the Project Director of PIP, who spoke on the topic: “Advocacy and behaviour change communication (BCC) and Dr Samuel Nii Ardey Cudjoe, the Associate Project Director of PIP, who spoke on the topic: “The youth, HIV/AIDS and stigmatisation”.