HIV/Aids clients in Arua district have petitioned the government and the Non-Governmental Organizations to start using affirmative action in employment of people to implement HIV-related programs in order to fight corruption.
This according to them will fight corruption that has been perpetrated to frustrate programs meant for people living with HIV/Aids by those who are not living positively because they don’t know their problems.
Simon Wadri, one of the clients who have stayed with the virus for more than ten years says many projects and programs meant to help them always fail because the implementation is given to people who don’t feel for the victims.
He cites examples of programs such as Global Fund which ended up building houses for people who are not positive. This, he says, is because HIV positive clients were not involved in the management of the program.
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Dick Nyai, another client who is also a former legislator says many times people have taken advantage of programs meant for HIV clients to enrich themselves. He says there is need for affirmative action in employment for programs that are aimed at helping the HIV positive people so that people who know the disease can be employed to handle such programs.
They were speaking on Thursday during the World Aids day commemoration held in Arua Municipality.
But Arua district health officer Dr. Patrick Anguzu said the demands from the PLWA can only be met if parliament passes a law.
He admits that some of the programs meant to help the HIV/Aids clients have been affected by corruption but ruled out such cases in Arua district. The World Aids Day event that attracted people from all over the district, was marked under the theme “Re-engaging leadership for effective HIV prevention”.
