ENUGU—OVER 500 female prisoners in prisons located within the South-East geo-political zone have so far been sensitized on the scourge of HIV/AIDS and its attendant consequences on their lives. The sensitization exercise, which is being organized by Society for the Welfare of Women Prisoners (SWEWPS) is coming on the heels of the revelation by a member of National Advisory Committee on AIDS (NACA), Mrs. F.G.N. Orji that of the estimated 3.8 million Nigerians living with HIV/AIDS, young adults between 20 and 29 years were mostly affected by the scourge. She added that one of every 100 adults is afflicted with HIV/AIDS.
Speaking at a seminar organized for Controllers and Prison Officers on HIV/AIDS Response in Prisons in the South-East States by SWEWP, the Executive Director of the body, Mrs. Sylvia Akpala, said that the objective of the campaign was to find out the level of knowledge of HIV/AIDS in prisons so as to educate prison officers as well as the inmates on how to avoid the disease or care for those already living with it.
“Since HIV/AIDS is found to be so devastating and fatal having no cure yet, it becomes necessary that prisoners and prison community should have a proper knowledge on how to safeguard their lives from this dreaded pandemic. It is on this basis that SWEWP made a project proposal to NACA on HIV/AIDS Response in prisons of South-East States where the organization has been working for the past eleven years since its inception in 1983,” she explained.
While disclosing that the first phase of the project had been carried out with Advocacy visits to the Controllers and prison officers in each prisons in Anambra, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States, Akpala added that the second phase involved training workshop for the controllers and other senior prison officers drawn from the zone who would eventually train other prison officers.
“This will be followed with the production of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials with HIV/AIDS slogans for distribution in and outside the prisons for greater impact of the project”, she said, adding that the fourth phase of the project “is the education of prison inmates in two prisons in each state on HIV/AIDS while the last phase is the training of prison inmates –– peer educators that will keep passing the information or education they received to new prison inmates for continuity in the fight against the scourge.”
