Global AIDS - Papua New Guinea

Leaders need AIDS lessons - The National Newspaper – Pt Moresby, 27/09/04

POLITICIANS in the Asia-Pacific region know little about the effects of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic on the youth in their countries, an international meeting in Thailand has found.

The meeting also found lack of money and a political will are two major obstacles in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people in the Asia-Pacific region.

This bad news came to light at an international meeting of members of Parliament from countries in the region which has just ended in Bangkok, Thailand.

Papua New Guinea was represented by Dr Banare Bun who is chairman of the Parliamentary HIV/AIDS Advocacy Committee, Community Development Minister Lady Carol Kidu, Unggai Bena MP Benny Allan, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Advocacy Committee, and Daulo MP Ben Kiagi.

Dr Bun said the meeting of 50-plus MPs was held to discuss the effects of HIV/AIDS on young people in the Asia-Pacific region.

Its purpose was to help political leaders better understand the seriousness of the epidemic and its effects on the youth of countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

The meeting heard the MPs were not well informed about the epidemic and its spread among the youth population in their own countries, around the region and the world. It was sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund and the Asia Forum for Parliamentarians on Population and Development.

“The purpose was to see how MPs are responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic as far as the youth were concerned because we have found statistics show that 60 to 70 per cent of that those infected in the Asia-Pacific region or in fact the world that is afflicted by HIV/AIDS are the youth group or the teenaged — 15 to 35 years old. They are the worst hit and so this meeting was specifically to look at how we could address the issue,” said Dr Bun.

“The resolutions from the meeting were that many MPs in our region were not fully versed with reproductive health, sexual health, HIV/AIDS issues and so on. So, there was a need for greater sensitisation of MPs, including PNG.”

“Sensitisation in the sense of having them informed about what the whole issue is all about. They know that HIV/AIDS is affecting people but the basic facts about what it can do in terms of economically, what it can do in terms of employment, what it can do in terms of social and family structure, they are not fully versed with so they need to be more sensitisation of MPs in the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.

“The other issue is that the youths issues, especially in relation to HIV/AIDS and sexual reproductive health is not properly addressed. There is a stigmatisation and discrimination is too ambiguous and aimed at the adult population — not specifically targeting the youth.

“The action plan that was formulated was that we re-organise each of the countries that were approaching this by making user-friendly services available to the youth. User-friendly in the sense that the youth can go to a place where they are comfortable with, perhaps have a young person there who can talk to them about sexuality, reproductive health and so that they are well-informed about the situation.

“The third major issue was that countries were not putting enough money to fight against HIV/ AIDS. Lack of funding and resources was one of the biggest issues that came from all the countries that were represented at the meeting,” Dr Bun said.

“Our Government is aware of this. I have spoken to the Prime Minister on numerous occasions and even the Finance Minister so we believe in the 2005 budget, we will have some funds allocated,” he said.