"HIV/AIDS touches everyone directly or indirectly," Minis-ter within the Ministry of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran said at a meeting the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) hosted for its senior managers.

The GRA has a policy on the prevention of discrimination against staff living and working with the infection and formally launched its Peer Educators Group last December. Project Co-ordinator with the International Labour Organisation, Sean Wilson, noted "that the leadership of organisations needs to be more involved in the process of dealing with HIV/AIDS in the workplace." He said organisations' HIV/AIDS policies need to be highlighted more and that more action needs to be taken. "It is time to walk the walk," Wilson said.

Assistant Commissioner Janet Abbensetts made similar comments in her presentation. She reiterated that in order for the GRA's HIV/AIDS programme to be successful, "top management must be committed to the process." She said the GRA has more than 26 trained Peer Educators and it plans to create more structured programmes with monitoring and evaluation mechanisms in place.

Abbensetts said the Authority aims to bring about change through closer interaction, apart from education, since many persons are already informed about the infection. She also pointed out that a Peer Educator's life must model what they teach and urged the managers to become Peer Educators. The GRA said its policy is subject to an annual review.

Ramsaran, in his address, said the infection threatens the able-bodied section of the workforce and pointed out that statistics have shown the 14-49 age group to be the most heavily affected. He pointed out that orphans, pregnant mothers and indigenous people have been identified as vulnerable groups, however, he said one of the ministry's flagship programmes is the Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmis-sion programme.

The meeting was held in the Training Room at the Cus-toms and Trade Administra-tion's Main Street office.