Published by the government of Zimbabwe
2 July 2009
Harare — ZIMBABWE has been recognised once again for its fight against HIV/Aids after the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and its partners won an award for excellence in HIV/Aids strategic communication at an awards ceremony held in Namibia recently.
The country won the first prize in the community and integrated category ahead of more than 30 countries from across the African continent at the awards organised by AfriComNet.
Zimbabwe was recognised for the various programmes that have been implemented to conscientise people about the HIV/Aids pandemic.
Zimbabwe was also rewarded for its efforts in disseminating information to rural communities as these communication strategies have gone a long way in promoting behaviour change among the people which, in turn, have helped the country reduce the HIV/Aids prevalence rate.
In an interview, Mrs Naume Tavengwa, the programme manager for Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission with Zvitambo, one of the ministry's partners, said AfriComNet was a group of technocrats from the continent specialising in public health.
"We are proud to have been recognised as a country in the area of fighting HIV/Aids and it shows that the country is being creative in the area of disseminating information on HIV/Aids issues mostly related to exclusive breastfeeding," she said.
"This award will go a long way in silencing all those critics who were doubting the strides that we as a country have made in trying to reduce this pandemic," she added.
More than 30 representatives from the continent attended the awards ceremony, held in the Namibian capital Windhoek on June 12.
Mrs Monica Muti from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Mrs Tavengwa of Zvitambo and Karen Hatzold of Population Services Zimbabwe represented the country as "Team Zimbabwe".
These awards came at a time when the country has made strides in reducing the HIV/Aids prevalence rate to 15,6 percent.
AfriComNet is made up of experts in public health from all over Africa with a mission of ensuring that the people of Africa have access to quality public health.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
