HIV/Aids and drug abuse prevention training |19 July 2023
The workshop in full swing
● Rise of cocaine users noted
The HIV and Aids Support Organisation (Haso) organised an HIV/Aids and drug abuse prevention training last Saturday in order to increase capacity of its partners and volunteers on the negative effects and complications of new emerging drugs, HIV treatment literacy and adherence support.
According to recent reports, there is a rise in cocaine users in Seychelles and this is a big concern for all. Haso wanted all its partners to know it and its consequences.
The training was attended by 28 participants and they are mainly health and safety officers, nurses and midwives, counsellors and Haso volunteers and the facilitators were Dr Agnes Chetty, Dr Marie and Eddy Kilindo.
Dr Chetty, who works as a volunteer with Haso, spoke about HIV treatment literacy and support. She shared that “treatment is available and more than 900 people are currently on treatment and there are a few who are positive but do not come forward. HIV treatment is very effective, it works. Somebody who is on treatment is expected to live a normal life. Treatment today is easier to take than 20 years back. If you have HIV come for treatment and the message is treatment is very effective, easy to take and with treatment one is expected to live a long and normal life. In Seychelles we do also have women positive with HIV who gave birth to children who are negative. We have been doing this for years and we do have a programme for women”.
Justin Freminot from Haso noted that this training is of utmost importance as we are seeing an increase in cocaine users. “It is difficult to know how many people are taking drugs. Did we do a proper research to know this? To tackle this problem, it will not work if we use only punitive measures. We have to conduct sensitisation and educational programmes in the community. Even when someone is on methadone, whenever he has to apply for a job he has to do a test and it further complicates the situation.”
Marie-Noella Sinon, midwife at the high risk clinic at Victoria Clinic, said: “Every day we have patients with high risk conditions. This session helps us how to help these patients better and also we learnt new information today. High risk is quite a lot – high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV, drug addicts, teenagers. Any woman who is pregnant can develop a high risk condition and we are happy to know more about some recent developments in Seychelles.”
Greg Vadivelo works at SCAA and for him taking part in this training will help him pass on the information to his organisation. “This helps in the education on various subjects such as HIV, drug consumption etc. We also learned about the importance to adhere to treatment and become an ambassador to others. We also learned how to better support people living with HIV.”
After this training session, Haso hopes for better understanding of what is happening on the field and how to follow up.
Vidya Gappy
Photos: Joena Meme
