Addressing as a guest speaker at one day Advocacy Campaign on HIV and AIDS with stakeholders here at Wakching on August 25, minister for forest, environment, ecology & wildlife, excise, M.C. Konyak called upon the people of Wakching area to uphold the ethos of Christianity and moral values and do away with stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS.
He said as Christian brothers and sisters, it was one’s responsibility to love one another and render moral support, care and concern to people living with HIV and AIDS.
Pointing out that Churches and schools were the two institutions that impart moral values, he appealed to the pastors and teachers to play a vital role in creating awareness about HIV and AIDS in their respective Churches and schools.
He said, if people wished to live a healthy and worthy life, one must take good care of their health by availing free medical facilities provided by the government and added that parents were responsible for the growth and development of their children.
Urging fervently, to say ‘No to HIV and AIDS’, deputy commissioner, Mon, Angau I Thou challenged the gathering to adopt a strong resolution to make Wakching an AIDS free area.
She was optimistic that if people join hands and fight together, Wakching can become AIDS free area and set example to other areas in the district. Citing that prevention was the only cure, she exhorted to live an honest life, and remain pure before marriage.
Stating the example of Africa where majority of youth have become victims of HIV and AIDS, she said, time has come for the state to face the same situation if people were not aware of it. She also said that a time has also arrived for couples to go for compulsory HIV blood testing before marriage to protect the future generation from this menace.
Inspiring the good works of medical officer, Wakching for conducting compulsory HIV blood testing to patients before medical consultation, she urged the chief medical officer, Mon to adopt the same method both in civil hospital and all CHCs and PHCs.
District programme officer, Mon DAPCU in his concept briefing informed that 11722 people were detected with HIV and AIDS in the state and out of which 91 people are from Mon district with16 HIV positive being detected within 4 months from April to August 2011 at Civil Hospital Mon.
The MO Wakching informed that ICTC Wakching was functioning fully to provide free medical care to the people and urged people to avail the facilities. To ensure whether a patient was infected with HIV or not, compulsory blood testing before examining the patients for treatment he added.
Chongtie Shiu, president NNP+ also spoke at the function. Voluntary blood testing by students and public and group discussion and interaction were the highlights of the programme. The programme was attended by Govt. officials, students, village councils, VDBs, Church leaders and GBs and public leaders of Wakching area.
Earlier the programme started with a welcome address by SDO civil Wakching. The programme was organized by NNP+ & DAPCU Mon and supported by LFA, Nagaland under the Theme: “Together we can”.
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