NAC hails schools

Daniel Mhonda Mutare Correspondent
THE National Aids Council (NAC) has commended schools in Manicaland for breaking the barriers to information on HIV and AIDS that used to separate rural schools from their urban counterparts in terms of accessing reproductive health education.

This came out during the provincial primary and secondary schools quiz competitions held at Chancellor Primary School and Mutare Girls High School last week.

The quiz competitions that drew schools from Manicaland’s seven districts were hosted by NAC and were won by Nyanga High School for the secondary schools category while Zvona Primary School from Chipinge won in the primary schools category.

The two will represent the province at the national competitions to be held on October 30 in Harare.

In an interview, NAC Mutare district Aids coordinator, Mrs William Mudzikati said the competitions were a way of measuring the knowledge levels of children on HIV and Aids.

“We are happy over the performance of schools in Manicaland in which we have realised that all the seven districts of the province were represented.

“Most of the schools representing the seven districts are from rural communities, which means barriers to disseminating information on HIV and AIDS have been broken,” Mrs Mudzikati said.

“We are using these provincial competitions to measure the knowledge levels on HIV and Aids among children who are sexually active with our target being to promote abstinence among the young generation and discourage them from engaging in sexual activities.”

She said as the national AIDS coordinating board they wanted to measure the knowledge that people had on how to prevent the transmission of STIs and HIV and Aids adding that it was through such competitions that they could promote the flow of information learners.

Manicaland deputy provincial education director secondary, Mr Charles Mugano praised the NAC national programmes in the fight against the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

“NAC is a partner to the education system that is currently helping us in our national programmes to fight the HIV and AIDS pandemic and we have seen a remarkable change in information levels that people have on the pandemic and we commend them for a job well done,” he said.