Mr Samuel Yao Atidzah, Executive Director of GOSANET Foundation, Tuesday affirmed the critical role condoms and self-testing play in preventing new HIV infections, particularly among young and vulnerable populations.
“HIV remained a public health concern in the country, so we need concerted efforts like education and promotion of the use of condoms and self-testing,” he stated. Mr. Atidzah stated this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Ho ahead of the commemoration of International Condoms Day. The Day, which falls on February 13, every year, a day before Valentine’s Day is to promote safer sex, reduce HIV and sexually transmitted infection transmissions and prevent unplanned pregnancies. GOSANET Foundation, a health NGO operating in some districts in the Volta region is an Implementing Partner of the Ghana HIV and AIDS Network (GHANET).
Mr. Atidzah noted that condoms remained a trusted and highly effective option for triple protection, which he mentioned as preventing HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and unwanted pregnancies. He called for sustained community-level prevention interventions in line with natural HIV response priorities.
The Executive Director told the GNA that during the last quarter of 2025, GOSANET Foundation under the GHANET OVP Project in the South Dayi district of the Volta region distributed 500 HIV self-testing kits and 1,440 male condoms to young people and other priority populations. He said the Foundation also delivered a total of 1,504 HIV related prevention services during the same period.
Mr Atidzah noted that the prevention services included stigma and discrimination education campaigns, which he said reached 503 community members and human rights education which benefited 337 individuals across selected communities in the district. He continued that they also focused on strengthening community knowledge on sexual and gender-based violence, the patients charter and provisions of Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) Act.
Mr Atidzah noted that they also educated the people on criminal offences related to HIV, with targeted engagement with fisherfolk communities who were considered a priority population due to mobility and vulnerability factors. Mr Atidzah noted that these were part of the Foundation’s efforts to promote early testing, safer sexual practices, and personal responsibility for sexual health. He intimated that addressing stigma, discrimination and human rights barriers was essential to improving access to HIV prevention, testing and care services and to achieving national HIV response targets.
The Executive Director was of the view that as an Implementing Partner of GHANET the Foundation was committed to supporting the GAC and the Ghana AIDS Control Programme in advancing evidence-based HIV prevention intervention and contributing to the national goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.