Dr. John A. Aswani taking participants through the overview of HIV & TB and the Kakamega HIV County profile Picture By KELIN/Patrick Kangethe
This training was an eye opener. It brings to us renewed hope and joy to know exactly what rights PLHIV have and to know how to claim them. We will pass this good news to our colleagues in our respective support groups and hope we will all have better lives.” These were the words of a participant given feedback after his participation in a three days training in Kakamega County on HIV, human rights and the law from 24to 26 June, 2014. The training brought together 19 participants from different Community Based Organization’s working with Persons Living with HIV in the County. Neighbouring counties such as Bungoma and Vihiga were also represented at this training, which was supported by UNPD-Kenya.
Some of the issues emerging from the training included the need for sensitization of healthcare providers on the rights of People Living with HIV (PLHIV), the need for more PLHIV within the County to be trained, and also the need for the HIV Information Education and Communication materials to be translated to local languages to increase the number of people that have access to this information.
Other issues discussed included the need to work closely with the county governments especially, during the budget making process, to ensure adequate budgetary allocation within the health budget for PLHIV programs. Cooperation with county governments was discussed in light of the need to eliminate harmful cultural practices that increase HIV infection and impede effective interventions on HIV. The participants requested KELIN to conduct follow up meetings and work closely with them in taking forward the objectives of the training.
This training takes forward the recommendations of the findings of the Global Commission report on HIV and the Law and a study to conduct human rights violations of persons living with HIV, which was undertaken in 2012 by KELIN. The two reports recommended the need to make PLHIV aware of the human rights.
This is very interesting. I also read a tweet @kelinkenya was copied in on right to information promoting right to health in terms of citizens being aware of their rights and demanding them. I completely agree with translation of materials to local languages. Keep up the good work!