Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), a global biopharmaceutical company headquartered in New
York, has built the capacity of three local health non-profit organizations to enable them to better package HIV/AIDS campaigns to overcome the growing challenges of stigmatization, rejection and discrimination of the disease.
The three organizations, Hope for Future Generation, community-based children and women focused NGO;Christian Care into prisons and community services and the Ghana National Association of People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), received the training from BMS faculty members recruited from Ghana, South Africa and Botswana.
It is the first time BMS’s Secure Future Programme, which aims to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa, had provided such a support to organizations in Ghana.
Dr Raphael Avornyo, the lead facilitator from Ghana told journalists at the close of the training in Accra on Saturday that persons living with AIDS virus, board members and staff of
the three organizations participated in the one week workshop.
Training areas, he said, included building capacity in community mobilization; advocacy skills; resource mobilization; financial management; leadership and governance; and ways to handle disclosure of status, stigma and

discrimination.
The workshop also saw the launch of buddy concept (close friendship) to help people living with the AIDS virus to fight stigmatization, discrimination and rejection in the Ghanaian
society.
Mrs Helen Mhone, a 56-year old HIV positive patient and BMS faculty member, educated participants on the importance and the implications of disclosing one’s status, how to deal with the stigmatization and discrimination.
Sharing her own life experience after testing HIV positive 19 years ago, Mrs Mhone, married with three children, said disclosing one’s status is a personal choice and in some cases a legal requirement.
She said it was always important for the infected person to consider certain factors before going public to let others know.
Some of the factors she mentioned included having a space for rejection, determining whether the people are ready to listen and how much of the information to share with them.
Mrs Mhone said fears of disclosure included - fear of the virus itself, fear of disease itself, fear of the people’s judgment,
fear of rejection and fear of being feared by other people.
To fight stigma and discrimination, she said, “Refuse to confront or acknowledge the problem. It’s like burying your head in the sand as if there is nothing to do…
“Appreciating the benefits (of going public), will create a good mindset of approaching public speaking from many levels. Our ability to speak in front of others could save a life or affect our lives.
“The more we do public speaking, the more skills, comfort, experience and fun we end up having,” Mrs Mhone said.
Another facilitator and faculty member of BMS, Mr Litha Klaas, stressed the critical role community members could play in the fight against HIV/AIDS and said Government and Non Governmental Organisations must always collaborate with community people to ensure ownership and sustainability of programmes and projects.
Mrs Cecelia Senoo, Chief Executive of the Hope for Future Generation described the training as very insightful and beneficial, saying “my staff are very happy to have benefited from this package because the knowledge imparted was very relevant to making the needed impact in the fight against HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination.
Reverend Alex Waklatis, Director of Christian Care, said the workshop had equipped participants with the requisite technical knowledge and skills, which would enable them to effectively carry HIV/AIDS campaigns and as well as other advocacy programmes to reduce the stigma and discrimination
associated with the disease.