Chamber of Commerce Hosts HIV Testing

Over the last five years, Belize has participated in the Caribbean Regional Testing Day initiative led by the Pan Caribbean partnership against HIV/AIDS, PANCAP. And on Friday, the country joins twenty countries in the region to celebrate the day under the theme, “Increasing Testing to Create Change.” Locations within Belize Cayo and Stann Creek have been designated for onsite testing booths, but even before that event, today, the Belize Chamber of Commerce organized a testing day for employees of businesses along the Coney Drive stretch. National Aids Commission Member, Christopher Pech spoke to News Five this morning about the event.

Christopher Pech, Membership Program Administrator, Chamber of Commerce

“Officially, there is a regional testing day across the country of Belize and of course in the Caribbean. I am a member of the NAC Committee; that is the National Aids Commission and that is the planning committee. So what we did, we offered the NAC Committee for us to do a testing booth here at the Chamber because I represent the private sector on the NAC Committee. And what we did was invite all the businesses across Coney Drive and of course our members if they would like to do onsite testing. So that is what we were doing today.”

Christopher Pech

Duane Moody

“Now a booth was to be set up here to have persons come in and get tested but due to the inclement weather this is not happening. So how will you guys get around to seeing this happen?”

Christopher Pech

“Well of course we did follow up calls with the people who we invited, the businesses, and then to the ones who confirmed, what we did was call them this morning and then we notified that due to the change of weather, we will be doing mobile testing instead of onsite testing. That is, we will be visiting them at their offices. So at this moment, we are doing the testing at our Chamber office and then we will proceed with our compound, which is the business upstairs and then some of the businesses across Coney Drive as well. The convenience of actually visiting the business and actually encouraging them to get tested is something very positive. For example, I don’t have the time to actually go to a clinic and do my testing and whatnot. So something like this to promote and for it to be convenient to visit the business.”