Let’s do away with unsafe
cultural practices - Minister
Wa, Nov. 21, GNA - Mr Ambrose Dery, Upper West
Regional Minister, on Monday called on traditional
rulers in the north to help find solutions to some
of the socio-cultural practices of the people that
tend to facilitate the spread of the HIV/AIDS
disease.
Mr Dery mentioned some of the socio-cultural
practices as the inheritance of widows of deceased
relations, female genital mutilation, and giving of
tribal marks, which he described as a hindrance to
the collective efforts in the fight against the
disease.
The Regional Minister was speaking at a forum on
AIDS and cultural practices in the Upper West Region
at the festival of arts and culture currently taking
place at Wa.
He urged the chiefs to sensitise the people on the
negative effects of some of the practices that help
in the spread of the dreaded disease and also how
such traditions could be reformed.
Mr Dery said one of the challenges facing the
country was how to ensure behavioural change among
Ghanaians.
He said the infection rate of the disease in the
region was 2.6 per cent, adding that, the region was
pursuing vigorous campaigns to reduce it to two per
cent by December 2007.
Dr Daniel Bagah, Dean of the Wa campus of the
University of Development Studies, called for self
moral discipline by Ghanaians as the surest way to
avoid contracting the disease which has no cure yet.
Professor George Hagan, Chairman of the National
Commission on Culture, who chaired the function,
urged Ghanaians to abide by the "ABC" of HIV/AIDS as
the safest way to avoid contracting the disease.
GNA
