By Roy Sanford, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE HANOVER AIDS Support Organisation is working hard to educate residents of the parish about the facts surrounding HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The effort is said to be bearing fruits.
The organisation was founded in 1995 in order to bring hope and support to persons in the parish who have been inflicted with the disease. "The organisation started when a group of concerned citizens decided to offer assistance to a man who was HIV positive and living on the streets of Lucea," Dominica Pradera, immediate past president of the organisation told The Gleaner in an interview. "His family was poor and could not take care of him, plus the hospital was reluctant to admit him." She added that the group of citizens decided to help and finally the hospital agreed to admit him on the condition that the community offers assistance. "So we made up a roster to visit him and help him in any way possible," Mrs. Pradera said. "When he finally died, he died with dignity." She added that the organisation offers assistance by buying medication for those who cannot afford it, obtaining baby formula for breast feeding mothers with the disease and visiting those in the hospital.
Sister Karen Brown OSM, a Roman Catholic nun and one of the founding members of the organisation, said that presently the group consists of 15 "solid members." "We have a two-prong approach to the problem of HIV/AIDS in the parish," she told The Gleaner. "We offer prevention workshops to groups, clubs, neighbourhood watches or any other organisations in communities across the parish." She said the group also offers counselling to patients with HIV or AIDS and their families. "We support them and befriend them," she said. "We attempt to make the community realise the patient is not a health risk."
She said the effort of the group has borne tremendous fruits in dispelling the social stigma in the parish surrounding AIDS. "We even have cases in which the community has come forward asking for assistance," she said. "So we are definitely having an impact."
According to statistics provided by the Hanover Health Department, as of the end of December last year, there have been 136 reported cases of AIDS in the parish. Of that number 96 are males and 40 females. The age group with the highest number of cases is the 30-39 age group accounting for 35 per cent of reported cases. The average amount of cases reported since 1999 is 18 per year.
