– response gets better ‘n better each year
EXCITED couples as well as single men and women out shopping yesterday in the vicinity of the City Mall at Regent and Camp Streets in downtown Georgetown took the opportunity of knowing their HIV status by getting tested at the National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS) booth set up there.
Several couples, tightly holding hands and blushing ever so slightly, told the Chronicle that as they were out shopping at the Mall, they decided to get tested and were happy that they did because they were finally able to know each other’s status.
NAPS Coordinator, Ms. Deborah Success-Hall, said that this was their third exercise to date, and that the response so far was favourable, with more and more people getting tested as the day progressed.
She noted that for the morning session, 80 couples and 52 single men and women were tested in what has been aptly titled ‘The Test of Love’ seeing that Valentine’s Day was mere hours away.
Ms. Success-Hall added that a few business places have partnered with the Ministry of Health to make the event a success by sponsoring dinners for couples who got tested.
Persons who got tested, she said, were each given a raffle ticket and required to submit their names and telephone numbers so that at the end of the exercise when the raffle would have been drawn and the winners selected, the organizers would know how to get in touch with them.
She said that similar events were also being held in other regions of the country, and that in the city alone there were three testing sites just for the day. The other two sites at reference besides City Mall were the Demico Car Park and Fogarty’s roundabout.
She explained that sponsors such as Grand Coastal Inn, Double Platinum Hotel, Little Rock Television Station, Splashmin’s, Burrowes Hotel, Wongie’s Restaurant, Aracari Resort, Paper Craft and Regency Hotel all pitched in and sponsored dinners for two for Valentine’s Day.
The event saw a steady stream of visitors, and even though some people did not get tested, they took away with them flyers and condoms that were being distributed at the City Mall.
Meanwhile, the Marian Academy on Carifesta Avenue, also in the city, yesterday held their third annual Valentine’s Blood Drive which was being sponsored by students and their parents.
That event kicked off at around 13:30 hours, and according to the principal, Sister Marie Harper, the response keeps getting better and better with each passing year. Last year for instance, she said, they got over 86 donors, and this year they were expecting that figure to reach well over 100.
Sister Harper said students were registering donors, while the Ministry of Health employees were doing such things as the mini health check ups, the interviews and taking blood.
National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) Coordinator, Ms. Shameeza Mangal, said that the banner on display was made by students, and bore the names of all the blood donors who were canvassed in advance of the exercise.