OECS RCM receives grant to eliminate HIV/AIDS transmission

By Caribbean Medical News Staff
The OECS RCM has received grant funding to continue its work in the region for an additional three years.
The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Regional Coordinating Mechanism (OECS RCM) for HIV/AIDS has been awarded a US$5.3 million grant from the Global Fund in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Chair of the OECS RCM, and Minister for Health in Saint Lucia, Hon. Alvina Reynolds, OECS ministries and organizations have been collaborating for months to secure funding that will help lessen the rates of infection in the region.
“It has been hard work for Ms. Joan Didier the consultant, Ms. Veronica Cenac, and the teams from the region. And finally, we got the good news that we have been awarded the amount of US$5.3 million to deal with the issues of HIV/AIDS in the region.
We intend to target the stigma and discrimination that surrounds all of the issues [related to HIV/AIDS]. We must continue to be strategic in using the funds where it is most needed, to save lives and reduce HIV and AIDS infections in the region.”
Director of the OECS RCM Joan Didier, noted that while the OECS Commission through the OECS HIV/AIDS Unit has been working throughout the OECS since 2005 and receives grant funding through the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS, the grant funding comes to an end in 2015.
“The OECS RCM is particularly elated because it means that in 2016 we will have money for another three years work within the OECS. The OECS Commission is going to be the principal recipient of those funds. What this means is that the money will go to the OECS Commission and they will be the implementers . They will work through the ministries of Health in the six OECS countries who will then work with civil society organizations particularly those that work with the LGBT community, commercial sex workers, and young people, to ensure that these populations who sometimes are restricted in their attempts to access services can have freer access to services,” Didier explained.
She added that the OECS will soon be validated as having eliminated mother to child transmission for HIV. Achieving that status, she said, is only part of the process, as maintaining the status will require hard work, thus the funding from the Global Fund will help build on gains already achieved.