About 30 men and women porters selected from Ashiaman market and its environs have undergone a three-day training to become peer educators on HIV/AIDS and Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) issues.
The training was organised by the management of Hope for Future Generation (HFFG), an Accra-based NGO, with support from the Adventist
Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).
The participants were taken through the concept of peer education, human anatomy and physiology, pregnancy and child bearing, abortion, sexually transmitted infections, SRH rights and basic facts about HIV and AIDS.
Others were stigma and discrimination, condom use and demonstration, facilitation skills, care and support prevention, gender based violence and sex.
They were also educated on personal hygiene, communication skills, record keeping and reporting on prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV and AIDS.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, Mr Edem Anumu, Project Manager of HFFG, explained that often the porters were left out in intervention programmes on HIV and AIDS and therefore there was no evidence-based data on them.
"Considering that they are a vulnerable group, it is ideal to reach out to them and offer some education on HIV and AIDS and empower them to lead responsible lives," he added.
Mr Anumu said the training would help strengthen existing associations of porters for free flow of information and empower those interested to become non-traditional distributors of condoms and other over the counter
contraceptives.
He said HFFG would conduct periodic meetings with the trainees to further empower them with some basic skills and establish condom retail
outlets.
Ms Samata Alhassan, on behalf of the participants commended HFFG and ADRA for empowering them with knowledge and information on HIV and AIDS, as well as other reproductive health issues.
"We now feel part and parcel of society because we are always left out in national activities, so empowering us with this useful information would help us manage our lives very well to contribute our quota to national
development.
"This training has exposed many things I did not know and I am motivated to go and share the ideas with my peers, especially the sex
negotiating skills and stigmatisation," she said.