Helping prostitutes in Accra
Yeboah-afari, A.
Aids Watch 4: 4-5
1988
PMID: 12281931 Document Number: 360353
The effort to combat AIDS Ghana, which has 334 reported cases of AIDS as of June 1988, is led by both a full time AIDS director from the Ministry of Health and the Technical Committee on AIDS. This report focuses on the 2 programs in the capital Accra that try to stop the spread of AIDS by working with the prostitute population, and programs by the Technical Committee on AIDS to combat AIDS in rural areas. One was developed by the Family Health International (FHI) and the other was developed by the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG). FHI's pilot project starts by educating volunteer prostitute "leaders" (a title given those enrolled) about AIDS, protective barrier methods of contraception, and common types of misinformation. All participants were encouraged to give up prostitution, and those who didn't became "leaders" who were in charged of both educating 10 other prostitutes and supplying them with the free condoms supplied by FHI. The program even checks the willingness of those enrolled to practice safe sex by having men pose as customers to see if the prostitutes are offering condoms to sexual partners and/or using spermicides. These men do not have sex with the women, but they do pay them for their time. PPAG's AIDS prevention program takes a different approach. This program tries to provide prostitutes with an alternative source of income. When prostitutes were polled about reasons for selecting their profession, most replied that they entered it during a period of economic hardship and were desperate for income. The PPAG provides these women with capital to start feasible small businesses. The highest incidence of AIDS is in eastern Ghana where many who left during hard times went to areas with a higher incidence of AIDS (i.e. the Ivory Coast), and then returned to be taken care of by family when stricken ill. The Technical Committee set up a home care project that treats patients at home and thus allows district health staff to monitor the spread of HIV, and counsel affected families and communities. Villages are told to report any sick newcomers to the health staff so that they can be treated and tested for AIDS. The Technical Committee with the Red Cross's sponsorship is educating the traditional healers on AIDS and HIV infection.