Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)
Orton Kiiishweko
20 January 2012
Access to HIV information, testing and treatment for people with disabilities should be given significance like other social services in the country, the Chief Executive Officer of Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT), Erwin Telemans, said on Thursday.
He was speaking in Dar es Salaam at the end of a project conference titled "Making HIV/AIDS Strategies Inclusive for People with Disability in Tanzania," carried out in 15 districts.
Commenting on the project in which CCBRT partnered with the government, Mr Telemans told delegates that disability must be mainstreamed into the nation's strategies and budgets.
The project has reached 44,902 individuals through awareness, 8,481 individuals received counselling and 71 health centres physically modified.
The conference was attended by various groups of people living with disability as the project implemented by CCBRT with the support of CBM-US came to a close.
In discussions on Thursday, they highlighted the risks and barriers that arise from misconceptions around disability and sexuality and the heightened vulnerability of people with disabilities.
He said people with disabilities are the largest minority group, but a substantial number within the community are yet to recognize them as vulnerable.
The CBM-US International Programme Coordinator, Karen Heinicke, said a 2004 World Bank study showed that almost all known risk factors for HIV/Aids are increased for people with disabilities.
The CCBRT Programme Manager, Clement Ndahani said the Tanzania disability survey (2008) showed that HIV prevalence among people with disabilities was higher than that of the non-disabled adult population.
It was 9 per cent compared to 7 per cent for the general population. He said people with disabilities have been given information materials on HIV/Aids prevention and treatment. The materials, which are available as audio recordings in local languages and in braille, have been distributed in the 15 districts.
The promotion of this message at Thursday's meeting ties well with the conclusion of the five-year regional strategy plan set out by the African Campaign on Disability and HIV/Aids in 2007 to advance awareness.
The recent International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa also launched a framework for the inclusion of disability in national strategic plans on HIV and Aids, providing a tool-kit to guide both the development and the review of national plans through a "disability lens."
She said that as planning begins for the Aids 2012 conference in Washington in July 2012, organizers say it will be "a watershed moment to eliminate stigma, criminalization and discrimination, which fuel the HIV pandemic." In Tanzania, it is estimated that about 5 million people live with a disability, half of whom are children.
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