PARLIAMENTARIANS across the political divide in Barbados have come together in the fight against the spread of HIV.
Present and former Government and Opposition MPs, led by Speaker of the House of Assembly Michael Carrington, sat side by side with other interested parties in the HIV/AIDS?campaign at Accra Beach hotel today to initiate the Advanced Parliamentary Leadership in Community Dialogues on HIV?Prevention, Ending Stigma and Discrimination project, which Minister of Culture Stephen Lashley said was designed to “bring to fruition what is written in the Barbados National HIV Policy”.
That policy, according to Lashley, aims to achieve “positive and sustained behavioural change among vulnerable groups and across the entire population, through evidence-based planning and targeted interventions”. The project is being supported by the United Nations System in Barbados, with funding being provided through the UNAIDS?Project Accelerated Funds Facility. It is also getting support from the National HIV/AIDS Commission and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN?Women).
Lashley said 30 years after the outbreak of the HIV/AIDS?epidemic which each year claims the lives of 1.3 million people in developing countries, the challenge of stigma and discrimination against persons living with the virus and against vulnerable groups, presented a major obstacle to open debate on the issues related to the disease. And despite the National HIV Commission’s achievements, he charged Barbadians were still engaging in “risky sexual behaviour” while “stigma and discriminatory attitudes” continued to impede access to prevention, care and treatment.
Lashley reminded his colleagues that “as Parliamentarians we have to be persistent as we advocate for and develop protective legislation, and the purposeful allocation of public funds to HIV/AIDS campaigns”. At the same time he suggested leadership by example, urging parliamentarians to speak “openly and honestly” about the illness.
