Stakeholders Call For Elders To Be Participated In The HIV Initiatives -

By STAFF REPORTER

STAKEHOLDERS and activists in the foreline war against HIV/Aids in the country have underscored over the need to have the elders participated in different projects against the killer disease in the country.

They observed that failure to involve the elders in the fight against the disease may thwarts the country’s much- needed vision to curb new cases of HIV/Aids.

The HelpAge International Country Director, Mr. Smart Daniel expressed that despite presence of elderly people living with HIV in the country, there is still the problem of the key group not being included in various projects to fight against HIV infections.

He made the remarks in his audience with journalists in Dodoma Capital City, shortly after opening the special stakeholders meeting to deliberate obstacles facing the HIV/Aids positive elders in the country.

“If this group is not given priority in the fight against HIV, we cannot achieve the goal of increasing the number of people who use antiretroviral drugs and reach all HIV services by 95 percent by 2030,” he observed.

He informed that the aim of the meeting was to meet with various stakeholders in the HIV/Aids issues in the country, the government, as well as the private sector to discuss the challenges that contribute to the inability of elderly people living with the disease to access needed services.

“HelpAge has decided to organise this meeting in collaboration with TACAIDS so as to bring together stakeholders involved in AIDS issues to discuss on how best the elders in the country can stand a better chance to get the HIV/Aids services,” he detailed.

He said it was disturbing to see the poor manner to which the elders, which is a potential population on the country, are being crowded – out from vital access to HIV/Aids health services.

” Currently, the message that is being given in various media outlets focuses at the youth group and other groups and the elderly have been excluded, thus resulting in failure to get education and knowledge to access Aids services,” he said.

In addition, he added that even most of the HIV related projects that are currently being implemented across the country focuses on serving other groups, including young adults, and the elderly are not given priority.

“There are many challenges, including the whole steps in service delivery, the system is still not friendly to the elders. The elders are not given opportunities, but also the stigmatization of the elderly aged 60 years and above is rampant, ” he noted.

For his part, the Senior Director of Community and Private Sector Involvement at the National Council of People Living with Aids in the country (NACOPHA), Mathew Kawogo, said that a national strategy is needed so that elderly people living with the disease can access better service and care when attending to health facilities.

The fruitful meeting attracted officials from the Health Ministry, the President’ s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government and National Council of People Living with Aids in the country (NACOPHA).

Among others, the general vision behind the gathering was to discuss and develop a special strategy to help the elders accessing Aids services.