Twenty appointed to National AIDS Commission
It kills more Belizeans than traffic accidents and is in fact much easier to prevent. But that has not stopped the global AIDS epidemic from spreading across every continent and nation on earth. As part of our nation’s fight to control AIDS, today some new soldiers were enlisted into battle.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This morning, twenty Belizeans from all over the country, representing a wide range of the society, became commissioners of the National AIDS Commission. Hand-picked by the Cabinet, these commissioners will actively try to reduce the rate of HIV/AIDS infection in Belize.
Vonetta Burrell, AIDS Commissioner
“Representing the media through this commission, I think it’s only right that we are well informed of the statistics and what Belize needs to do on a whole to change the problem that we’re having with AIDS right now. And if I can be well informed, through my job as a media personnel, I can therefore enlighten the rest of Belize.”
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development
“I think today marks a new beginning, one in which we really mean to take the situation of HIV and AIDS in our country in hand. I cannot stress enough, we are not attempting to frighten people,
We are really not attempting to frighten people but I think we need to send the message, very loudly and very clearly that this is a national problem, we must address it, not only from the government’s point of view but from the point of view from everyone out there. And we will do our best to work with the general society, to get the education out, the message out, but also in a compassionate way, to deal with persons who are affected by AIDS and who are suffering from it.
I think it is about political will. When I said, we don’t need to re-invent the wheel, what I meant was, there is so much information out there because as you know, AIDS has become a global epidemic and what we need to do I believe, is look at the experiences of other countries. But adapt them to our Belizean situation to see what will be effective for us.”
The first Belizean AIDS case was diagnosed in 1986. Now, every week a Belizean man, woman or child dies from AIDS. Belize City tops the charts but Stann Creek is next in line. The representative for that district says prevention has got to start in the school.
Betty Gabourel Cooper, AIDS Commissioner
“AIDS is you, me, everybody that intermingles and so forth, so it’s very important that we now deal with the younger kids that haven’t been exposed to sex, and teach them all about sex in school, I mean the primary school, I don’t mean the high school, by then its a little bit past the stage, the first stage.”
Marie Ysaguirre watched her son die from AIDS.
Janelle Chanona
“What do you say to the parents, and children, who are maybe nonchalant about this disease at this point because they haven’t been physically, or personally affected by it?”
Marie Ysaguirre, AIDS Commissioner
“Get into the know. Get educated, learn all they possibly can about HIV/AIDS. And not only learn it, pass it on, practice it. Practice whatever they learn as preventions, practice it, put it into effect. Don’t only speak about it. Do it.”
The establishment of the commission is the result of a commitment made by Prime Minister Said Musa at the 1999 Commonwealth Summit in South Africa. Authorities estimate that around seven thousand Belizeans have either HIV or AIDS…and most are unaware of it.
