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| Sherry Aryeetey, Minister Of Health |
Women Living with HIV in
the Brong Ahafo Region have made a passionate appeal to the members of the
Ghana Hospital Pharmacists Association to temper justice with mercy and go back
to work to enable them have access to their life saving wire - anti-retroviral
therapy (ART).
According to them, the
strike by the pharmacists is threatening their survival because their lives
depend much on the anti-retroviral therapy.
The women made the
appeal at a Capacity Building and Sensitization Workshop for Women Living with
Living HIV and AIDS and their Service Providers at Abesim near Sunyani.
The International
Federation of Women Lawyer (FIDA Ghana) with financial backing from UN Women
under its project organized a day’s event under the theme: “Increasing Access
to Property and Inheritance Right of Women Living With HIV and AIDS in Ghana”.
The main goal of the
project is to address the structural inequalities that make difficult for HIV
positive women to access their property and inheritance rights after the death
of their husbands.
The women also appealed
to government, Fair Wages and Salary Commission to address the concerns of the
pharmacists to enable them to go back to work as soon as possible.
The Women Living With
HIV were unhappy about the attitude of some health and community based workers
towards them as well as doctors and nurses who provide services to them.
They therefore stressed
the need for intensive sensitization for health and community based workers on
HIV related stigma to help minimize stigmatization of people living with HIV as
well as reduce stigma against health workers providing HIV services.
They further called for
sensitization among policy makers, traditional, opinion and religious leaders
on HIV related stigma to enable them join the stigma reduction campaign.
In her presentation on
the topic: “Property Rights of Women in Relation to Succession”, the Executive
Director of FIDA Ghana, Jane Quaye, said many women and their children were
deprived of properties which they had labored and toiled with their deceased
husbands.
According to her, to add
salt to injury, they are made to undergo widowhood rite and ritual servitude
upon the death of their husbands. This inhumane act, she noted, is
unacceptable and called for abrupt stop to such barbaric act.
The Executive Director called on parliament to amend a section of the
Children’s Act, 1998 (ACT 560) that stated that property of a deceased husband
that is less than ten million old Ghana cedis must go to the spouse and
children, adding “this is too small”.
Touching on challenges
facing the implementation of the Interstate Succession Law, she pointed out
that its application has been problematic. However, she was quick to add that
it is still a good standard after all the years in operation.
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