WESTERN BUREAU:
THE WHITE House Special Envoy to the Americas, Governor Kenneth "Buddy" MacKay, says he will encourage more funding from his country so that Jamaica can continue its work fighting the spreads of AIDS, the deadly disease.
Governor MacKay was speaking this week with The Gleaner during a tour of the Jamaica AIDS Support facility on Queen's Drive, Montego Bay, where he inspected the Life's Work Greeting Card Project, a programme whereby HIV/AIDS victims make and market greeting cards.
Governor MacKay said that if young people in particular were properly educated on the disease, it could help stem the spread of AIDS.
"Jamaica has not yet reached crisis level like Africa and other places where the disease is spreading rapidly. In some ways you have been allowed some extra time and if it is used properly...if you educate your young people adequately you can prevent the spread of the disease.
Funding
"When I go back to Washington I will let them understand that we need our funding to be more in the prevention area, and that is educating the people," Mr. MacKay stated.
Sister Karen Brown, volunteer co-ordinator at Jamaica AIDS Support, said the greeting card project, done under the theme "Life's Work Project", started in November after a group of people with HIV had expressed the desire to earn their own money.
"Some of these people are weak. They have lost their jobs and some had to move back home, but they do not want to be dependent, so they came up with the greeting card project," she said.
It started with 37 people, but 20 have since died.
Sister Brown noted that sales from the cards brought in between $25,000 and $30,000 a month, with the most of the business coming from hotels. She said there was room for more support from the general public.
In appealing for support for the Life's Work Greeting Cards project, she said there was room for more support from the public.
