By
Staff Writer, Shinyanga
THE Parliamentary Committee on HIV and AIDS has hailed the Prime Minister’s Office
for working collaboratively with the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) to
implement positive interventions meant to curb the spread of HIV viruses across
the country.
Mr
Stanslaus Nyongo (MP), the Chairman of the
key Committee has observed that the interventions that ongoing in different
parts of the countries are playing key role to help curbing further spread of
the killer viruses across the communities.
He
made the remarks when the Committee visited and inspected the progression of the
Epidemic Control (EPIC) project that is being implemented by the Determined,
Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) in the Shinyanga
Region.
The
DREAMS is an ambitious public-private partnership aimed at reducing rates of
HIV among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in the highest HIV burden
countries.
EpiC
is an eight-year global initiative that provides strategic technical assistance
and direct service delivery to achieve HIV epidemic control and strengthen
global health security.
During
the tour, the Committee visited several youths groups under the vital program, including the Sitetereki group (Old Shinyanga Ward), Jahazi ( Ibadakuli Ward)
and the Tunaweza group located at Kolandoto Ward of Shinyaga Region.
“The
vision of this tour is to inspect and come aware over the progression of the
vital project in order to stand a better side to advice the government over
the areas that need to be improved so that to assure the implementation of the
project fetches the needed results of having the healthier youth who will effectively
use their power and talents to venture into key development works,” Mr Nyongo
expressed.
He
added that the Committee was far impressed with the good works being done by
President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan to prevent the adolescent girls in the country against HIV/Aids.
“President
Samia has always been directing and supporting implementation of numerous interventions meant to empower the the adolescent girls economically through
setting friendly environment to allow them to take part in the entrepreneurship
sector to scale up their livelihoods,” he observed.
Together
with that, Mr Nyongo added that the government has put in place good podiums
for the girls to voice their voices against gender-based violence and other
negative forms of atrocities, saying the Committee was very impressed with the
development.
Speaking
for her part, the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy and
Parliamentary Coordination) Ummy Nderiananga has challenged the girls in the
country to embrace a spirit of self confidence and standing at forefront in
tapping numerous economic opportunities that available at their respective
areas.
Ms
Agnes Junga, the Senior Advisor of the DREAMS Program through the Epidemic
Control (EPIC) said the goal of the program was to lessen the prevalence of
the HIV/Aids viruses towards the adolescent girls, starting from the age 9 of
24 ages.
She
expressed that the ambitious program, Epidemic Control (EPIC), was being
implemented in the Shinyanga region by the Family Health International (FHI360).
