Telem sponsor AIDS awareness
T-shirts for government workers
PHILIPSBURG--On Friday, November 30, in observance of World AIDS Day, which will be celebrated on Saturday, December 1, it is expected that all civil servants will be wearing to work an HIV/AIDS awareness shirt sponsored by Telem Group of Companies.
Government’s HIV/AIDS Coordinator for General and Internal Affairs Orve Medina explained that this project derived from the Government’s HIV/AIDS Programme Management Team (PMT) strategic plan, which introduces the multi-sectored approach allowing all key departments in government to participate and create a unique project to contribute to World AIDS Day.
Medina encourages all civil servants – being the largest group of employees on the island – to wear their T-shirts on Friday, as she believes their influence on the public they serve every day can help change people’s mentality toward the epidemic.
Public Relations Officer for Telem Group of Companies Joe Dominique explained yesterday during the presentation of the T-shirts to the Executive Council, that this had been the first time the company had been called to sponsor such a project and it felt privileged to do so. He further said that all Telem employees will also be wearing the T-shirts on Friday morning during the official opening of the company’s new building.
In addition to the presentation of the T-shirts, Coordinator of PMT Suzette Moses explained that in January of this year, the Executive Council approved for the first time the official appointment of HIV/AIDS coordinators in all Government Departments.
Moses commented that this initiative has been a tremendous plus for the HIV/AIDS programme of St. Maarten and also a very important step in achieving the goal of the new strategic plan, which is to increase the involvement of all sectors in HIV/AIDS response in St. Maarten.
As a result, the HIV/AIDS coordinators for each Government Department throughout the year have taken part in marathon training sessions, in order to grasp a full understanding of what the HIV/AIDS programme entails.
She explained that the programme is not only speaking about prevention, but that many other subjects are involved in the successful implementation of the programme, including understanding areas such as monitoring and evaluation, understanding the need to change legislations and develop policies, policy development and behaviour change communication.
The final training session will take place on December 6 and 7 focusing on leadership development. Throughout the training, Suzette said that all department coordinators participated and attended the meetings and also got together and formed the HIV/AIDS Coordinating Team.
The team is made up of the coordinators from the key government departments and the NGO Community together with the Programme Management Team (PMT) that meet monthly to provide assistance with implementation of activities.
