adminCatherine Murombedzi
The First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe will host African first ladies at ICASA. She will lead the session on the Role of First Ladies in Embracing and Sustaining Change in the HIV Response. The session is to be chaired by Prof Sheila Tlou of UNAIDS. Other First Ladies who will speak at this interactive session are Mrs Lordina Mahama of Ghana, Mrs Margaret Kenyatta of Kenya and Mrs Getrude Maseko of Malawi.
The Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) is supported by UNAIDS, PEPFAR/USAID. Dr Grace Mugabe has been involved in the field of HIV and runs an orphanage in Mazowe where disadvantaged children, mostly orphans have found a place to call home.
On World AIDS Day in 2013 at Garwe stadium in Chivhu she spoke passionately that no child must be born HIV positive. “No child should be born with HIV” this was the message by the First Lady, Amai Grace Mugabe, at the World Aids Day commemorations that Zimbabwe observed on 1 December.
In a speech read on her behalf by Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development Minister Sithembiso Nyoni the First Lady said because preventive treatment is readily available and accessible in the country there was no reason why any baby should be born HIV positive.
“As a mother of the nation, I feel immensely pained to realise that some children are still being born with HIV or acquire it after birth and we eventually lose them,” said Amai Mugabe.
In 2012, the First Lady lost one of her children from the orphanage due to an Aids-related illness. This was disclosed by His Excellency President Mugabe that the First Lady was bereaved when she lost one of the minors. The First Lady called on all mothers to have their children at heart and be united in the elimination of transmission of the HIV virus from the mother to the child.
“All mothers out there let us unite and vow that no child must be allowed to be infected with HIV at a time there is adequate drugs to prevent HIV,” she said. She also spoke against any form of child abuse and called for the country’s courts to pass stiffer penalties for such perpetrators. “Child abuse of any form is condemned and I call upon the relevant authorities to pass stiffer penalties which will act as a deterrent,” she added.
All children under five years found to be HIV positive would be commenced on ART. Also to be included on the early treatment regime are discordant couples (where one partner is HIV positive and the other is not) so as to protect the uninfected partner and for the health of the infected part.
She said that despite the limited resources, the country was committed to have everyone in need of anti retroviral therapy access to medication. The goal of the prevention of HIV from mother to child transmission programme is to have less than 5 percent of new born babies testing HIV positive.
As seen, First Ladies play a crucial role in giving a better life to disadvantaged children in the society and through ICASA more people will learn that the first ladies are playing a motherly role to the needy.
Feedback:[email protected]
Online Reporter