President HIV/AIDS Media Crops (HMC) – Sierra Leone, Richard B Bockarie yesterday joined stakeholders in commemorating World HIV/AIDS Day, which was climaxed by an advocacy forum.
Bockarie disclosed that they have thought it fit to hold a forum to deliberate on the leadership role of the media in the fight to halt the spread of the disease in the Country.
“We understand that the trend in the spread of the disease has taken a steady ride as according to information from the National Aids Secretariat (NAS) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the prevalence as at now was the same as in 2005 when the sero-prevalence survey was conducted,” he said.
He said, “the fight against HIV/AIDS can graciously tagged as public interest matter with multifaceted ramifications and implications bordering on public health, healthy population growth and more tacitly the inevitable socio-economic ramifications…”
Giving a brief history about the organization, HMC coordinator, Rachael Horner explained that HMC is a local Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that has a premier objective to promote the fight against the pandemic through media advocacy and sensitization.
She intimated that since HMC’s establishment in 2006, it has undertaken several ventures; one of these he highlighted was the compilation of a Media Guide Book on HIV/AIDS.
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