NETHIPS ends two day workshop for support group leaders
A two day workshop has been held for support group leaders drawn from the four regions of Sierra Leone by the Network of HIV Positives in Sierra Leone (NETHIPS), on Thursday, October 24 and Friday, October 25 this year at the Grassroots Gender Empowerment Movement (GGEM) Center at John Street in Freetown. (Photo: Mr. Brima Sorie Kanu Project Officer, NETHIPS)
The training which was funded by Christian Aid through the Comic Relief, focused on equipping the support group leaders with the necessary skills to effectively manage their respective groups and have the basic business management skills to make their groups self reliant.
Participants at the training Workshop
Addressing participants, the Executive Director NETHIPS, Mr. Idrissa Songo, disclosed that the success of NETHIPS depends largely on the success of support groups, adding that that was why they have decided to build the capacity of support groups to make them independent in the face of the threat of donor fatigue.
He called on the participants to treat the workshop with all the seriousness it deserved and to make practical the knowledge gained form the training when they return to their different localities.
Participants listening to lectures
Mr. Idrissa Songo described the support groups as the hub of NETHIPS as their success depends largely on these groups, which was the main reason why they organized the workshop to capacitate them and make them independent in the face of the threat of donor fatigue.
He intimated that they intend to target all the communities within the Western Area very soon.
He maintained that free treatment is provided in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Medical Dental Association so as to ensure quality health care delivery for patients.
In his comments, the Director of Miral Health Care in Sierra Leone, Mr. Afam Okafor, said that they have also hired the services of two Medical Doctors and Nurses to carry out the free treatment of patients in Freetown.
He warned that only Miral Health Care pharmaceutical products will be referred to other pharmacists.
Several participants told the Sierra Express Media that they were very happy with the knowledge and skills they have gained throughout the two day training exercise.
Participants at the Workshop
According to the Project Officer of NETHIPS, Mr. Brima Sorie Kanu, the organization has thirty eight support groups country-wide and comprises of people living positively with HIV/AIDS, as these groups were formed for people tested positively to know that they are not the only ones living with HIV/AIDS but there are others.
He explained that the groups are the backbones of NETHIIPS, without which he said, the organization will not function as it is the members of these groups that are living with the virus.
He maintained that these groups give psycho-social support to others that are living with the virus by counseling and also encouraging the victims about their future, as they still have a long way to go and to do better things in life as long as they continue to take their medications.
He revealed that the training targeted all the groups around the country who were represented by their leaders.
He also stated that the aim of the workshop was to ensure that at the end of the training, participants will boost their business ideas, as NETHIPS normally gives support to their support group members on which they were asked to go into any business of their choice, as they have realized that when these groups were given monies for business without giving them the necessary skills that will empower them to manage their business well, it will just collapse naturally, but that with the training, their business will be successful and sustainable.
He said it was their hope that the trainees will be in a better position to transform and apply these ideas in their various village savings and loans which they are presently implementing, adding that the trainees will also in turn train the other beneficiaries in the villages as a way of replication so that everybody will benefit.
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