The Ekiti State AIDS Control Agency (EKSACA) has solicited collaboration and synergy with the Adolescent Friendly Research Initiative and Care (ADOLFRIC) to link Key Population in the state to its one shop health centre.
The General Manager of the Agency, Dr Charles Doherty, made the call during an advocacy visit to ADOLFRIC centre in Ado-Ekiti on Friday.
Doherty said that all hands must be on deck to ensure that Key Population were well cared for to enhance a harmonious society.
The EKSACA boss, who commended the leadership of the center for its effectiveness, said that there was need to Integrate the Key Population (KP) into the one-stop adolescents’ health facility so they could be free of stigmatism.
The SACA boss explained that the KP group, which include commercial sex workers, drug addicts and others, have a high risk of contracting the HIV/AIDS virus and spreading it to their partners.
Doherty, who stressed the need for the HIV response stakeholders in the state to go into research in order to harmonise, document, and publish the works and the achievements recorded in the state, said that the KP should be sensitised and given the needed orientation and care.
Responding, the Chief Executive Officer of ADOLFRIC , Dr Babatunde Olofinbiyi, said that the center was established for adolescents from age 10 to 24 years for the purpose of giving Nigerian adolescents freedom of expression and not discreetness.
He also said that the center was established to ensure that adolescents were educated and informed on ways to go about accessing sexual and reproductive health information without fear.
Olofinbiy added that his organisation was presently working on research to showcase its work both locally and internationally.
Also Speaking at the meeting, the Executive Director of Access to Health and Rights Development Initiative (AHRDI), Mr Peter Emmanuel, advised that attention should not only be based on testing and treatment
of the KP group, but should focus on their rehabilitation in society and economic empowerment.
He said that stigmatization should be eliminated in order to give the KP group a voice and sense of belonging in society.
