Anayo Okoli
14 November 2008
UMuahia — Over 1,000 youths, mostly women drawn from the rural areas of the three senatorial zones of Abia State have received free HIV/AIDS tests and counselling as part of the effort to educate the rural masses on the dreaded HIV/AIDS scourge.
The youths were also given awareness seminar on the dangers of drugs and their abuse as well as the relationship between drugs and HIV/AIDS, hence the need to stay out of drug.
The programme, a pilot project staged in three communities in the three senatorial zones of the state, involved seminars, community rally, road show campaign, awareness and sensitization as well as free HIV/AIDS screening and counselling. Ikwuano, Isuochi and Ahiaba communities hosted the programme in the Abia Central, Abia North and Abia South zones, respectively.
Organized by Joint Action on Rural Focus (JARUF), an Mgboka-Obingwa based NGO in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development and support from the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the programme held for two days in each zone. And at least 45% of the participants were women.
The pilot programme held simultaneously in 19 states of the Federation involving about 25 NGOs was said to have been impressively attended across the selected states just like in Abia State where about 350 persons participated in each zone.
The aim of the programme, according to Mr. Sydney Enwerechi of JARUF, was to educate the rural population on the dreaded HIV/AIDS scourge and the dangers of drugs and their abuse.
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