Caribbean plots strategy on AIDS
We usually lead this newscast with shocking stories of crime, important decisions of government, or plain old political gossip. But ten years from now when we look back at the biggest story of the decade, it will likely be the devastation produced by the AIDS epidemic. Today officials from across the Caribbean met in Belize City to plot strategy to deal with the deadly challenge.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
In three days time it is expected that a regional plan of action will be formulated to help deal with the situation of HIV and AIDS in the workplace. It’s not exactly clear how the disease has impacted the public sector, but with the majority of persons affected between the ages of fifteen to forty-four, the impact on the working population must be large. For Prime Minister Said Musa, the time for talk is over.
Prime Minister Said Musa
“Sick leave, absenteeism, all these things will come about, not to mention the fact that our staff may be decimated unless we have a clear strategic plan to deal with this thing. Hopefully this workshop, with the assistance of the Commonwealth, they will be able to help us. But there is no need for anyone to panic, and I hope I didn’t sound a note of panic, I think we still have the capability of seriously addressing this and bringing it under control. But we cannot wait, we have to act now.”
It has taken Caribbean governments a long time to meet and talk about the disease. However, the region’s public service representatives all agree that the statistics call for a plan of action. So today thirteen Caribbean countries, including Belize, started working on developing programme to handle with the issue of HIV and AIDS in the workplace.
Margaret Ventura, C.E.O., Min. of Public Service
“What we want to prepare for is to educate public officers to get them to practice prevention, to develop a strategy for how we will deal with persons who are working in the public service and are affected. There is nationally, not only in Belize, a high level of discrimination for persons affected. We do not want to say that if you are affected you cannot work, you can no longer work; that is certainly unfair. So what we want to do is to prepare.”
In fact when the Heads of Government of Commonwealth countries met in Australia in 2002, they told the Commonwealth Secretariat that the issue must be treated as an emergency, and a crisis.
Director of the Governance and Institutional Development Division of the Commonwealth, Tendai Bare, says it is important that at the end of the meeting, the Caribbean countries have a clear understanding of just how serious the problem is in the public sector.
Tendai Bare, Director, GIDD, Commonwealth
“Really, the purpose of this workshop is to encourage country representatives to begin to collect data on the magnitude of people affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly in the public sector. So that we can then determine which are the critical mission sectors and how many people, and what can be done to replace the likely loss of skills.”
Bare says she was encouraged to hear that only recently Belize’s National Aids Commission was placed in the responsibility of the Prime Minister’s Office. Musa says he had no choice.
Prime Minister Said Musa
“It’s a very serious matter we are dealing with. This HIV/AIDS is posing a very serious threat to all our countries, and Belize is no exception. And I wanted to send a very clear message to all our people that we have to, as a people, as a nation, realise the enormity of the problems posed by this disease. “
Worldwide there are forty million people living with HIV and AIDS. Belize, which has an infection rate of two percent, ranks first in Central America and eleventh in the Caribbean. To date in Belize, there have been six hundred and twelve persons diagnosed with AIDS. Of those, three hundred and ninety-nine have died in Belize. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
