“It is a part of your duty. It is a part of the oath that you have taken. The present trends in this country must be turned around and our uniformed services will do their part in that vital effort,” Minister of National Security Cynthia Pratt told them Tuesday.
The deputy prime minister was addressing the opening of an HIV/AIDS “train the trainer” workshop for uniformed officers at the Nassau Beach Hotel, the first in 15 years.
The three-day workshop, which ends Thursday, is being sponsored by the Ministry of Health, the United States Embassy, the AIDS Foundation of The Bahamas and University of the West Indies HIV/AIDS Response Programme (UNIHARP). The sessions will be taught by Sanjana Bhardwaj, D. Hope Ramsey and Dr. Brandon Bain.
Participants include the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the Defence Force, Her Majesty’s Prison, Bahamas Customs, Bahamas Girl Guides Association, the Simpson Penn Centre for Boys, the Williemae Pratt Centre for Girls and the Pathfinders.
The Bahamas ranks first in the English-speaking Caribbean and third in the world in rates of infection per capita, Minister Pratt told uniformed officers. She said it would be unchristian and foolish to ignore fellow citizens living with the disease, and that they deserve compassion as well as medical care.
“As examples in our community and wardens of our security and safety, the members of our uniformed services must become aware of any special needs that those infected might have. AIDS is our enemy,” she insisted.
Minister Pratt said The Bahamas has been fighting a war against AIDS for almost two decades and the training of uniformed services to spread the message of prevention is a vital part of The Bahamas’ overall strategy of winning the war. She said:” We will not give up.” The first confirmed case of AIDS was reported in The Bahamas in 1983.
Acting Minster of Health, Melanie Griffin, pointed out that despite new drugs and treatments that offered AIDS patients longer periods of freedom from many of their debilitating infections, “fear” had always been the enemy in The Bahamas’ fight against AIDS and had kept Bahamians “ignorant” when they should have been learning the facts about the disease.
“Fear has kept too many Bahamians silent when everyone of us should be sharing that life-saving message of prevention,” she said, adding that fear of AIDS was no longer an option in The Bahamas.
The Minister said the fear of AIDS could lead to the stigmatisation of those who are infected. Many are the stories tinged with sadness and shame about those who had been rejected by their families, because they were infected with the virus or had developed full-blown AIDS, she said,
“Those who are infected can face discrimination from employers or co-workers and children risk the same discrimination in our nation’s schools if their status becomes known,” said Minister Griffin.
Charge D’ Affaires at the U.S. Embassy, Robert Witajewski, referred to the three-day workshop as “extremely valuable” as it would educate officers about the current state of HIV/AIDS and best practices.
“The training you will receive will provide you with a road map and a plan of action that will help us best expand and multiply what you are learning during this conference throughout the entire country and throughout the uniform branches,” he said.
Presently, those most at risk are adolescents and young adults.
In the last year the government has spent more than $5 million on services to implement its HIV/AIDS strategic plan, accelerated access to care and support and has also increased the availability of anti-retroviral therapy to people living with HIV/AIDS.
By Tamara McKenzie, The Nassau Guardian
