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| November 30, 2006 | Thursday | Ziqa'ad 8, 1427 |
People living with HIV form association
ISLAMABAD, Nov 29: December 1 will go down in the country’s history not only as World Aids Day or two decades since the first HIV case was detected in Pakistan, but as the formal launch of the Association of People Living With HIV and Aids (PLWHA).
The main objective of the association, to be launched during a photo exhibition in Islamabad on Friday, is “to build capacity and empower PLWHA in Pakistan”. The association will comprise a 10-member board of people living with HIV and Aids, including two female members.
In Pakistan there are very few NGOs directly working with people living with HIV which are being run by them. Most of them are concentrating on prevention, but they lack coordination and sometimes even basic knowledge about the epidemiology of the virus and its impact on communities.
Presently, there are limited capacity building programmes for PLWHA in the country. At the same time, PLWHA representatives are expected to attend all HIV-related meetings and contribute to policy and programming decisions as involvement of people living with HIV in decision-making has become an important global issue for any decision or activity related to Aids.
“One of the first tasks of the association will be to prepare a work plan based on the key objectives identified with the technical support of UN and other partner organisations. The progress both in terms of technical as well as financial will be monitored and evaluated regularly by UNAIDS,” explains Dr Aldo Landi, country director of the UN agency.
The initiative supports the UNAIDS core function to support empowerment of people living with HIV, and civil society participation in policy and strategic dialogue, and, generally, social mobilisation and partnership building.
There are plans to establish provincial associations in the four provinces, Fana, Fata and AJK in order to provide better access to people living with HIV.
The association is looking forward to holding training sessions aimed at improving the working of decision-making bodies in Pakistan. It will also lobby for the rights of people living with HIV, including the right to work, education (especially for children) and access to health care facilities.
The association will support on priority basis, the most vulnerable and the most in need of treatment and care.
Pakistan National AIDS Consortium National Manager Qadeer Baig termed the PLWHA an important initiative, saying that there was a great need for an organisation “by and for the people living with HIV”.
“Stigma and exploitation from agencies makes it difficult for people living with HIV to mingle with the society.”
Dr Baig feels that the environment for civil society intervention on HIV and Aids is not very enabling in the country. “Civil society in Pakistan is very fragmented. The innovation and the flexibility it needs is not yet there. According to a John Hopkins study, there are 45,000 NGOs active in Pakistan. Out of these only 300 (0.1 per cent) have direct or indirect focus on HIV and Aids,” he adds.
Pakistan is currently classified to be in the “concentrated epidemic” phase by WHO/UNAIDS definitions but the number of new cases of HIV infection continues to rise. At the end of March 2006, 2,903 cumulative cases of HIV and 344 of Aids had been reported to the National Aids Control Programme.
The actual number is believed to be as high as 85,000 (46,000 - 210,000), but it remains low due to under-reporting and poor data collection.
Low literacy rate, high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections, high number of migrant workers mostly in Gulf countries, high number of commercial sex workers both female and male, limited safety in blood transfusions, increasing number of injecting drug users and use of contaminated needles and highly mobile refugee population, are some of the factors that make Pakistan a high risk country for a further spread of HIV infection to the general population.— Huma Khawar
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