40 Teachers Undergo LCL HIV/AIDS Training

As part of its quest to intensify awareness on   the prevention of the AIDS pandemic in Liberia, the Lutheran Church in Liberia (LCL) HIV/AIDS program recently held a week-long HIV/AIDS training workshop for about forty teachers from the (LCL) school system in Gbarnga, Bong County.

Participants of the training were drawn from Lutheran schools in Bong, Lofa, Montserrado, Margibi and Nimba Counties.

Speaking to this paper at the close of the HIV/AIDS  training workshop,  the training officer at LCL HIV/AIDS program James Sloan indicated the training was primarily intended to equip the class room teachers  with the basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS to effectively  provide education to  students  about the  HIV/AIDS virus  in  their various schools.

He stressed the teachers  can play a major role   in the  effort to help minimize the spread of  the deadly disease, as such the  |Lutheran Church In Liberia HIV/AIDS program would closely collaborate  with the various schools  to extensively  crusade against the disease.

The LCL HIV/AIDS training officer disclosed more 180 teachers of the Lutheran Church in Liberia School System have been targeted to be trained under its five years programme how to use the HIV/AIDS manual developed in the various schools.

He  indicated as a  result of  the many awareness raising activities  in the past few years the infection rate of the HIV/AIDS virus  has  had a minimum drop and  more was needed to be done to see further reduction  in its  usurp.

The HIV/AIDS trainer said, misconception about the disease has over the years served as an obstacle in the strive to the minimize its spread and as such the disposal of proper education would further redirect people thinking and understanding of the disease.

The Lutheran Church in Liberia (LCL), which embarked on its HIV/AIDs program since 2001 currently, runs a Voluntary Consoling and Testing (VCT) Center in Gbarnga.

The VCT center was chiefly established in Gbarnga to provide the opportunity for people to do their HIV/AIDs test in order to know their status which is another preventive measure being encouraged by the church and offers free consoling services to HIV/AIDs victims.