adminOVER 300 people, among them underprivileged groups, are set to be awarded scholarships to attend the 18th International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa (Icasa) to be held in Harare at the end of this month.
The 300, who were drawn from different backgrounds, include key populations such as people living with HIV, children orphaned by HIV and other disadvantaged groups in society.
Local organisers of the conference have raised over $1 million, part of which will go towards funding the scholarships. Press and Communications Officer for the local Icasa secretariat Mr Walter Mawere told Sunday News last week that the beneficiaries will be selected from applicants who responded to the call for applications on the Icasa website. He said the scholarships will come in two forms.
“We are providing different types ranging from full scholarships where we are paying for accommodation, registration and transportation and partial scholarships where we are paying for registration only.
“A call for applications was made and people applied online. Key populations are the major beneficiaries of the scholarships, these include young people, people living with HIV, young women and men living with HIV.
“We also looked at people who had submitted successful abstracts and speakers at the conference and these were awarded scholarships,” he said.
Meanwhile, the local Icasa secretariat in the past weeks embarked on a massive media campaign as it tried to encourage more locals to register for the conference before deadline on Friday. At the time of going to print, over
5 000 delegates had registered for the event with more than two thirds of them being foreigners, a trend that worried organisers.
It could, however, not be immediately established if the media blitz by the organisers to encourage locals to take part at the conference had been successful. Mr Mawere said they had received encouraging feedback following the media campaigns but would want the registration deadline to be extended to allow more locals to register.
“We are pleased to announce that our media outreach is bearing fruits as we are receiving many enquiries from locals who want to take part in the conference and we would also like to thank the media who have really gone to length to publicise the conference. We are also lobbying for the slight extension of the registration period for Zimbabweans,” he said.
Icasa will be held in Harare from 29 November to 4 December this year at the Harare International Conference Centre, with over 10 000 delegates expected to attend. The conference will run under the theme: “Aids in the Post 2015 era: Linking leadership, science and human rights.”
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu