Minister of Health, Dr. Fenton Ferguson thanked the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and World Learning for their support in health and for recognising the important role of NGOs in the HIV/AIDS response.
Dr. Fenton Ferguson was speaking at the closing ceremony for the Caribbean Grant Solicitation Management Programme held Tuesday, September 15, 2015 at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston.
Dr. Ferguson said, “I want take some time to express our gratitude to our international partners in health for recognising the value of community, civil society and NGO involvement in the fight against HIV and AIDS.”
“The National HIV/STI Programme has had much success over the years and this is because of the valuable partnerships that we managed to forge and I want to thank USAID and World Learning for the support of the national effort to fight the prevalence of HIV and AIDS among the Jamaican population” he noted.
For the past five years, the Caribbean Grant Solicitation Management Programme which was implemented by World Learning with donor funding from USAID provided support to fourteen NGOs in Jamaica and the Bahamas to the tune of US$5.8 Million. The project which commenced 2011 is due to close November 2015.
The Jamaican grantees were the ASHE Company, Children First Agency, EVE for Life, Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, J-Flag, JN Plus, JoyTown Community Development Foundation, National AIDS Committee, Panos Caribbean and Pey & Associates.
The National HIV/AIDS Programme has achieved a 42 percent decline in new infections and is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal 6A which requires the country to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. Jamaica is also on track to meet the regional elimination goal of less than 2% mother to child transmission of HIV.