Bringing Actors in the Combat against HIV/AIDS in Universities to the Same Page
ECSU's HIV/AIDS Management Unit held two workshops in Adama town from 02-06 June 2012 in partnership with UNICEF, The Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Organization FHAPCO and Higher Educational Institute Partnership Forum Against HIV /AIDS (HEIS).
According to Ato Philipos Petros Head of HIV/AIDs Management Unit of ECSU and Secretary of the Executive Committee of Ethiopian HEIS partnership forum, the workshops were aimed at streamlining the discordant HIV/AIDS combating activities in a bid to chime in the activitieswith the national strategic plan.
They as well aimed at assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, status of forum member universities of Ethiopia, reaching at a consensus and bringing different actors to the same page.
Apart from the aforementioned objectives the workshop eyed at developing zero draft strategic plan for Ethiopian Universities, developing zero draft document for standardization of HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproduction health intervention package for higher education institutions.
The workshop had brought together 50 participants drawn from 5 universities and 17 pertinent governmental, nongovernmental as well as international organizations.
Thirty one of the participants deliberated on prevention packages while the remaining dealt at strategic planning.
Papers were presented on the establishment of the forum, national vision, mission, objectives, mandate, governance, thematic areas, activities undertaken so far, challenges encountered and membership fees among others.