HIV/AIDS task force receives added funding

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Four community-based health programs focused on AIDS/HIV education and health promotion received a boost in the arm with the announcement by Health Minister Allan Rock that additional funding would be allocated to improve their ability to expand community education.

The Manitoba Aboriginal Aids Task Force is one of the programs selected, and will receive an additional $50,000 to develop culturally appropriate HIV/AIDS programs.

But the task force faces a daunting challenge as it is responsible for community education of the Aboriginal population in both urban and rural settings. With an Aboriginal population spread out over 70 rural communities and dozens of urban centres, the staff of fewer than 10 are kept hopping, according to task force worker Winona Swampy.

"It certainly is going to help us increase our efforts to produce more information material and get the message out to more people," she said. "But it would have been nice if we could have got more funding for community workers."

The enormity of the task and the geographic challenge posed by attempting to get out to the various rural communities dotting the province, remains a real concern for the group.

"We get invited by schools, communities and reserves to come up to speak to the people and would like to be able to get to every community on a regular basis but we can't," she said.

And that's why the task force focuses on producing education material for distribution and use by teachers, health professionals and community leaders.

"The communities and the people need to help us spread the gospel. Community support is the key for us to get the information out and distributed as widely as possible," said Swampy.

The announcement of additional funding is part of Health Canada's Canadian Strategy on HIV/AIDS and the government has committed a total of $42 million per year to the initiative.

The goals of the strategy are:

to prevent the spread of HIV infection in Canada;

to find a cure;

to find effective vaccines, drugs and therapies;

to ensure effective care, treatment and support for Canadians living with HIV/AIDS and for families, friends, and caregivers, to minimize the impact of HIV/AIDS on individuals and communities;

and to counter the social and economic factors that increase individual and collective risk of HIV infection.