Dominica’s Ministry of Health and Environment National HIV & AIDS Response Programme has captured the Most Improved Award from the LIVE UP Caribbean Media Regional Testing Day.
The Award was presented to Dominica last week, at the Regional HIV Testing Day 10th Anniversary Awards 2017, held in Barbados.
Allison Samuel, Coordinator of Dominica’s National HIV & AIDS Response Programme accepted the award.
The award is in recognition of Dominica’s unstinting support for the Regional Testing Day initiative throughout the years and most significantly, the dramatic increase in the numbers tested this past year in 2016.
“Dominica’s exemplary determination to ‘Treat All’ increasing the numbers tested from 90 to 800- is simply EXEMPLARY. Dominica has remained one of our outstanding participating countries,” stated Allyson Leacock, PhD. Executive Director of Live up The Caribbean Media Alliance.
Allison Samuel said .”I am elated that Dominica has received this award given the hard working and dedicated team at the National HIV/AIDS Response Programme –NHARP. Over the years, although the team members have changed, the ethos of commitment and excellence have remained the hallmark of the service provided at the NHARP.”
Minister for Health and Environment , Dr Kenneth Darroux applauded Miss Samuel and her team on such achievement .“As the Minister for Health, I want to congratulate Miss Samuel and her team at the HIV & AIDS Unit for receiving this award for most improved testing . Over the years this Unit has embarked on an aggressive programme in managing and preventing HIV/AIDS. This was given for the dramatic testing of HIV for 2016. An exemplary determination to treat all . Increasing the numbers from 90 in 2015 to 800 in 2016, we see why this award was given for most improved.. We appreciate the work that she is doing to get people tested to know their status . This is commendable. The Ministry will continue to give support to the Unit in any way we can.” he said.
Other awards handed out for the 10th Anniversary included Public/Private Partnership Award, NGO Partnership Award, Innovative Outreach Award, Teamwork Award, Most Outstanding Award, and Most Committed Media Award.
The award is furnished by Scotia Bank and Pan Caribbean Partnership- PANCAP.
Regional Testing Day which was conceptualized by Allyson Leacock, PhD, Executive Director of the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership, now rebranded as LIVE UP: The Caribbean Media Alliance, has been organized for the last ten years, with the support of two critical strategic partners: Scotiabank and the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV AIDS (PANCAP). Scotiabank makes their bank branches accessible so the public can be tested as easily as they do their banking business while extending hospitality to the testing and counselling teams and taking care of any external infrastructure needed at testing sites.
PANCAP mobilizes all Ministries and Departments of Health who in turn provide all the Counseling and Testing Teams. The Ministries of Health provide the testing kits, expertise and resources to conduct the testing at the agreed locations. These entities continue to support the innovative and successful Public/Private Partnership Initiative. Regional Testing Day was jointly introduced in 2008 with six countries and 2,300 people being tested.
Congrats to you & your team, stay simple & natural nurse.
To promote testing and encourage prompt treatment for HIV/AIDS is a giant leap forward in the battle against HIV/AIDS. Dominica is giving the Caribbean and the world an example.
There would be one thing better but people are not so swift to accept it. That is to adopt, teach, and practice the moral code God has given us in Romans 1:26, 27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
People hesitate to be tested for two reasons.
(1) They are afraid there may be a lack of confidentiality.
(2) They are afraid of results of the test.
The public needs to be assured and reassured that their business at the clinic is kept 100% confidential.
Also people need to be properly informed that AIDS patients who get into treatment immediately have a better quality of life and are living longer due to improved treatment. This is no longer the sure death sentence it once was. People are living with the disease.
Sincerely, Rev. Donald Hill.
Good work, Team Dominica
Good job Dominica! It takes all of us to #EndAIDS
Collective voices, collective efforts!
Well done Ms. Samuel and the NHARP team! Dedication at its finest!