Two more ministries and the state-owned Guyana Chronicle newspaper on Thursday joined the fight against HIV and AIDS by signing memoranda of understanding (MOU) which would see them reaching out to their employees on the issue.

The signing ceremony took place in the boardroom of the Ministry of Health. The ministries of Housing and Water and Public Service which signed on Thursday, followed in the footsteps of the ministries of Agriculture, Amerindian Affairs, Culture, Youth and Sport, Education, Home Affairs, Local Government and Labour, Human Services and Social Security.

The project, themed 'Scaling up HIV/AIDS response by line ministries, Civil Society Organisations and the Private Sector', is the second phase of a project that commenced in 2003 when the World Bank approved the multi-country HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Adaptable Programme Lending (APL) to support the Caribbean Regional Strategic Plan of Actions for HIV and AIDS. The project costs the equivalent of US$11M of which US$10M is a World Bank grant; government contributed the other million. The objective of the project is to slow the spread of HIV and mitigate the effects of AIDS, through prevention and care activities.

The second component of the project, which involved the signing of the MOU, was introduced after the government recognised that an effective response to the disease should involve all the sectors and players, thus the scaling up of the response by the line ministries. The project supports the line ministries (non-health ministries) to expand initiatives in accordance with priorities in the National Strategic Plan and annual work plans. Initiatives will include activities for their clients as well as their own staff. The project supports activities focusing on prevention of HIV/AIDS and STIs through training, education and behaviour communication, condom distribution, information dissemination, treatment and care for the infected and affected families and workplace policy among other things.

It also focuses on the external clients of the respective ministries which include youth (in and out of school including street children), orphans, cultural groups, professional groups such as teachers, various associations such as parents/teachers associations, trade union groups, farmers, women's groups and other groups that line ministries can identify.

World Bank representative, Dr Mary Mulusa, who is the team leader of a visiting World Bank delegation, on Thursday said the Health Ministry's response to the virus can never be enough hence the involvement of the various ministries that can help to reach various population groups. She said Guyana is held up as an example by the bank in other countries for the involvement of its civil society and other sections in the response to the virus.

Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy said partnership is what is needed to win the fight while adding that winning the battle is not a choice but rather it is an imperative. And while the country supports abstinence, the minister said, abstinence alone cannot win the fight.

He said his ministry also supports fidelity, but that does not mean it would not support the distribution of condoms since every weapon must be used in the fight.