The First Vice Chair of the Liberia Coordinating Mechanism (LCM) of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (TGF), Rev. Janice F. Gonoe of the Lutheran Church in Liberia HIV and AIDS Program has strengthened calls for the Government of Liberia to utilized available resources provided to the country by the Global Fund as grant support to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
The LCM is responsible to coordinate the development and submission of proposals to the Global Fund on behalf of the country, as well as select organizations known as Principal Recipients (PRs) to manage the funds and oversee implementation of approved grants. The Ministry of Health (MOH), Rev. Gonoe said, is currently the sole PR for the Tuberculosis grant.
She made the statement during the commemoration of the 2018 World AIDS Day. The program was held on 1 December at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia under the global theme: “Know your status” and the national theme: “Do your HIV test”. The program was marked with parade in the principal streets of Monrovia with health and none health actors including students who sang songs, holding flyers with inscriptions that read: “Do your HIV test”, “Use Condom”, and “Stop Stigma and Discrimination”, among others.
According Rev. Gonoe, the Global Fund continues to support Liberia for the sole purpose of ensuring that the people of the country are kept healthy to stay alive, as such it would be good for the government to ensure the proper utilization of the money to help end AIDS, reduced the high TB burden and illnesses and deaths associated with Malaria, especially for children under ages 5.
“Liberians, let us make good use of the Global Fund to keep our people alive. This is because if we don’t use the grant wisely, there will be low absorption and funding might reduce, and we may not be able to meet up with the global “90 90 90 targets.” We have to do all in our powers to ensure the end users get tested and put on treatment to have suppressed viral load,” Rev. Gonoe emphasized.
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