Kohima Bureau
Kohima, March 29 (EMN): Chief Secretary Temjen Toy on Thursday launched training modules on HIV and AIDS for law enforcement agency and faith-based organisations (FBOs) prepared by Kripa Foundation Nagaland in partnership with the Family Health International (FHI) 360 and Nagaland State AIDS Control Society (NSACS).
The two separate resource manuals aim to empower the state’s police force and church workers for a collective response to HIV and AIDS, towards ensuring universal access, protection of human rights, and elimination of stigma and discrimination.
Speaking at the launching programme at Hotel Japfü in Kohima, Toy recalled his experience in the health sector 15 years ago and maintained that the approach towards HIV and AIDS was different then. He observed that the general attitude towards the issue has turned around, particularly of the church. Pointing out that the church initially used to look upon HIV and AIDS as something that is to do with a person’s sins, he said that the church has now opened its doors towards creating awareness.
He mentioned that earlier, a lot of concentration on targeted intervention (TI) programmes on high-risk groups, and the result was that prevalence among injecting drug users (IDUs) went down. However, he said, the issue of HIV and AIDS was still a major challenge. He underscored that focus needs to change as old challenges may not be there anymore but new ones will come up.
Toy called upon the Kripa Foundation and other agencies to focus on the vulnerable groups. He felt that with modernity and liberalisation, everyone knows of HIV and AIDS and how it is spread, but behavioural changes have not taken place. Therefore, he said the bigger fear is the spread of the virus among vulnerable groups, particularly the college and high school students. Emphasising that they are made not only aware but sensitised so that they could have behavioural changes in their lives, he urged upon the agencies to focus well and make informed decisions.
“With the support of the church and the law enforcement agency, I am sure that the issue of HIV and AIDS would be taken forward in a more effective manner,” he stated.
Police duty-bound to protect PLHIV
The Director General of Police Rupin Sharma, in his brief address, stated that while discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHIV) was reduced to some extent because of various educational programmes, yet they are still discriminated in certain pockets.
This is where he felt the job of the law enforcement came in. “We are duty bound to provide protection and to ensure that no discrimination takes place against them (PLHIV) because HIV and AIDS is looked upon as a much maligned illness,” Sharma said. “We don’t treat a diabetic patient or a cancer patient in the same manner we treat an AIDS patient. We have to look at AIDS as an ailment or a disease and not as a stigma,” he added.
He maintained that the police basically have two roles to play in tackling HIV and AIDS: one is, the role of the police as the consumer of the training module, and the other is, playing the role of the facilitator. Stating that the Nagaland police force constitutes 25% of the state’s employees, he pointed out the need for strengthening ToT (training of teachers) programmes and get more trainers for the NAPTC and PTS where 1000 people are trained and about 5000 personnel are trained in the refresher courses every year.
The police chief also suggested a basic structure of lessons for students, particularly for Nagaland Police schools, towards teaching children to learn caring and supportive attitude towards PLHIV.
Rev. Dr. Mechiehol Savi from the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) in his speech admitted that the church has, for a long time, looked upon the HIV and AIDS pandemic as the “malady of God’s judgement upon sinful humankind” and therefore detached itself from addressing the issue. He said the church, as a community of believers, cannot detach itself from the community and must always commit to address the issues that the society faced.
Asserting that the struggle to contain HIV and AIDS was no different, he maintained the church has now taken the responsibility to educate the people in different forms and was committed to continue as part of its holistic ministry. He highlighted that training for the church was earlier initiated by the state Legislators’ Forum on AIDS (LFA) and also extended financial assistance so that NBCC could educate and train church workers in the association level. For the last two years the programme has been successful and we are grateful, he said.
“We cannot be complacent and together we must continue to the issue creatively,” the reverend said and expressed positivity that the training module prepared by Kripa Foundation would go a long way in the education process.
The director of Kripa Foundation Nagaland, Abou Mere highlighted that Kripa was partnering with FHI 360 and US-based Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to implement ‘Project Sunrise’, under which, sensitizing Faith Based Organisations (FBOs) and law enforcement agency on HIV and AIDS and developing training modules for them were some of the tasks being taken up.
“I am confident that the training modules would be of immense help to the Law enforcement agency and Church organisations in understanding the AIDS epidemic and develop an appropriate response in tackling these challenges,” Mere said. He pointed out that improved access to HIV services including universal access to treatment, protection of human rights and overcoming stigma and discrimination were critical elements to reach the universal goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.
He acknowledged Project ORCHID and Eleutheros Christian Society (ECS) for allowing the Kripa Foundation to use their modules as the base to develop the training modules for FSO and law enforcement agency.
He also thanked the consultants for the project, Dr. Sashimeren and Dr. Vinito L Chishi; technical partners- NSACS, NBCC and Nagaland Police; the cooperation and support from People Living with HIV/AIDS and Injecting Drug Users; NGOs and Kripa Foundation (Project Sunrise) staff; also, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), CDC, and FHI 360 for supporting the HIV response in Nagaland and helping in developing the resource manuals.
