Gifty Mensah, founder, Friends of Women in Development
There is an urgent need for more education on the availability of Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) for the prevention of HIV after a possible exposure to the virus.
PEP is a type of medication taken to lower the chance of infection with HIV, which could lead to AIDS.
It is recommended that this medication, which lowers the risk of HIV by 80 per cent is taken within 72 hours after a likely exposure to HIV.
This assertion was made in an interview with the Ghanaian Times yesterday by Madam Gifty Mensah, Founder of Friends of Women in Development (FWD), a non-.profit organisation focused on empowering women and promoting adolescence reproductive health.
Explaining, she mentioned that increasing awareness about PEP, especially in rural Ghana could go a long way in reducing the rate of HIV and AIDS infection in the country.
“Many are not aware of the existence of such a medication so FWD, as part of our programmes holds events to educate people about PEP and its availability in the country, with the help of some health professionals who are our partners,” she added.
According to her, the fight against HIV and AIDS could not be won without ensuring that the masses had adequate information about the disease, its prevention and how to get prescribed treatment.
Touching on the need for policies to be put in place to severely punish persons found guilty of rape and defilement, Madam Mensah bemoaned that many cases of defilement were settled at the family level, with no form of protection for victims, who were sometimes made to continue to stay in the same house with the abusers.
She stated that poverty was also a reason why most women do not get help for their abused children, especially when the culprits are the breadwinners of the families the victims belonged to.
When women are empowered enough to fend for themselves, she said, incidences of all forms of abuse would remain far from their homes as persons with negative intentions hardly victimise children from well to do families.
“Though there are incidences where financially independent women have their wards abused, many of such individuals, at least get justice because they can afford the process involved.
Until we see poverty as a contributory factor to the high level of underreported defilement, incest and rape cases, the menace cannot be alleviated satisfactorily or eradicated an empowered woman is always in a better position to protect her children from all forms of abuse,” she added.
Madam Mensah further bemoaned that sexual abuse was traumatic and often associated with psychosocial problems in children.
The child right advocate therefore advised families to be very protective of their wards and ensure that children always grew up in safe environment because “children who suffer abuse such as rape and defilement are at risk of death, poor physical and mental health, HIV and AIDS infection, educational problems, homelessness, and poor parenting skills later in life.”