Gulf | Yemen
Religious leaders gear up to explore ways to tackle Aids
Religious leaders from Yemen, Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan will meet today to expore ways to prevent the spread of Aids.
- By Nasser Arrabyee, Gulf News Report
- Published: 00:00 September 17, 2005
Religious leaders from Yemen, Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan will meet today to expore ways to prevent the spread of Aids.
"The workshop will bring together almost 50 distinguished religious leaders from the participating countries to discuss the role of religious leaders and Islamic lecturers in creating and enabling environment for preventing the spread of HIV/Aids," sources from Sanaa-based United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) told the Gulf News.
"The aim of the workshop is to capitalise on the work of the previous regional meeting in Cairo of religious leaders in December 2004 which set the ground for developing a guide to assist religious leaders across the region in engaging more effectively towards combating and reversing the spread of HIV/Aids," the sources said.
The source made it clear that the participants, including representatives from the Yemeni Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs, will also review and enhance guidelines set by the Cairo meeting.
The religious leaders' initiative comes in recognition of the importance of the role of religious leaders in promoting a culture free from such sexually-transmitted diseases as HIV/Aids.
"UNDP works to promote religious values that serve in creating and enabling policy framework and public understanding on means to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids — the goal that was benchmarked as a Millennium Development Goal that needs to be achieved by 2015," the source said.
The workshop, the source said, will focus on the disease, the role of religious leaders and finally the areas of possible interventions to make progress towards addressing the various effects of the disease.
The four-day workshop — from today to September 20 — is being organised by the Regional Programme on HIV/Aids for Arab States of UNDP , the Steering Committee of the Religious Leaders Initiative to Combat HIV/Aids in the Arab World and UNDP's office in Yemen.
WORKSHOP
The four-day workshop — from today to September 20 — is being organised by the Regional Programme on HIV/Aids for Arab States of UNDP , the Steering Committee of the Religious Leaders Initiative to Combat HIV/Aids in the Arab World and UNDP's office in Yemen.
— The writer is a journalist based in Sanaa
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