By Petrina Francis, Education ReporterCITY OF Kingston Co-operative Credit Union (COK) will be pumping $2 million over the next four years into an HIV/AIDS fund to help support organisations involved in prevention and care programmes.
The fund was launched on Wednesday at the credit union's fifth annual public forum, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston, under the theme 'Assessing the Financial Impact of HIV/AIDS on the Individual, the Organisation and the Nation'.
Joscelyn Jolly, president of COK, said this year's theme was born out of the awareness of the impending threat to the HIV/AIDS pandemic to Jamaica and the wider region. As such, he said, COK felt compelled to contribute towards the fight of the dreaded disease.
"Despite the alarming statistics in Jamaica and the Caribbean, we would dare to hope that we would one day not be known as the region outside of sub-Saharan Africa with the largest number of HIV/AIDS cases but that instead, we would be known as the region which successfully overcame one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century," Mr. Jolly said.
This, he said, can be achieved if "We work together towards dealing effectively with this dreaded disease."
SCOPE NOT LIMITED
Brenda Cuthbert, general manager of COK, said the money will be disbursed to established well-run HIV/AIDS agencies. "We have special interest in supporting the workplace and the youth education programme, as well as programmes geared towards financial empowerment for persons living with HIV/AIDS. However, our scope will not be limited and we will support as many worthwhile established causes as we can," said Ms. Cuthbert.
Meanwhile, keynote speaker at Wednesday's forum, Roger McLean, lecturer in mathematics and statistics at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus, said that when persons become infected with the HIV virus, their roles in society are compromised.
He said: "It is clear that the sectors will be affected as the epidemic continues to run in cost and so all sectors are going to be affected directly and indirectly as we continue to lose people who are affected or infected."
Mr. McLean said that HIV/AIDS had been eroding the investment process and the labour force, which are the two main pillars of the economic system. As a result of this, he said that the country is faced with a situation of reduced output in various sectors.
