The Society for Family Health (SFH) says it has started a two-day training exercise for 60 community mobilizers and testers to stop HIV/AIDS transmission among pregnant women and children in Taraba.
Aisha Dadi, Program Manager, Society’s Lafiyan Yara Project, said this at the opening of the exercise on Wednesday in Jalingo.
Dadi said the exercise was intended to shock students with the knowledge necessary to develop their skills and enable them to perform optimally.
“We are the first partners for an intervention focused on children with HIV/AIDS. Therefore, it is important that everything goes as it should because we will set the pace.
“I urge you to pay attention to your training and make sure that children who need support receive the necessary assistance,” he said.
The entrants, he said, were drawn from the Jalingo, Zing, Karim-Lamido, Bali, Gashaka, Sardauna, Gassol and Wukari local government areas of the state.
According to her, the training is to build the capacity of community mobilizers to improve HIV case identification, referral and retention in the care of children, adolescents and pregnant women.
She said community mobilizers included traditional birth attendants, village health workers, vendors of branded and proprietary medicines, as well as mentor mothers.
“You are the ones who are with the grassroots people, you are the ones who interact the most with them and who they can trust.
“Therefore, it is imperative that you take your job very seriously, starting with this training the necessary questions where you need clarification,” he said.
In his remarks, Dr. Daudu Nyubanga of the State AIDS and STI Control Program highlighted the agency’s willingness to collaborate with partners to combat the scourge in the state.
“We want to expand case identification to ensure rapid assistance, as this is a collective fight that must be waged on all fronts,” he said.
Also speaking, Mr. Ronald Cletus, Director, Treatment, Care and Support at the Taraba AIDS Action Committee (TACA), said the training was a group of several sensitive groups in the effort as the rate of testing for children it was low.
“Last week, 85 children tested positive for HIV/AIDS in the state and this is concerning.
“The essence is to get more pregnant women and children tested and that is why we are having this refresher training,” he said. He expressed optimism that the gesture would impact trainees to expand testing and counseling services.
