The youth against AIDS network (YAAN), on Tuesday held a day’s validation workshop of the draft national youth policy on HIV/AIDS prevention, voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), care and support for youth of the Gambia, at the national nutrition agency’s hall in Bakau.

The sectoral policy validated seeks to not only compliment government initiatives but also to give young people the enabling environment to freely participate and obtain services that motivates them to accept one and other, especially their infected colleagues, through a peer friendly environment.

Declaring the day’s workshop open on behalf of the SoS for youth and sports, Mambanyick Njie, permanent secretary at the said department of state, commended the organisers of the workshop for their significant strides to curb the menace of HIV/AIDS in recent years.

According to PS Njie, the Gambia, confined within a deadly epidemic zone, is faced with the threat of HIV/AIDS, which hinders the progress of its development objectives.

He noted that if this was not adequately taken into consideration, it would render government polices and developmental objectives useless. He further noted that the 1.1 prevalence rate of the Gambia does not warrant complacency and that the need for sectoral policies such as this one cannot be over emphasised.

While commending the AWARE HIV/AIDS for initiating this sectoral policy, PS Njie expressed his department of state’s willingness to give due consideration and the required environment for the implementation of the policy.

For his part, Alieu Jammeh, director of the national aids secretariat, said there was a great need for stakeholders to look in to activities and areas of prevention. He also emphasised the need for the services to be available to the unreachable, noting that sometimes the services are not youth friendly.

According to Mr Jammeh, stigma and discrimination still continued to be an issue impeding on the fight against the deadly disease. He therefore urged the stakeholders to look into all the critical issues in their quest to curb HIV/IADS.

Lamin Camara, on behalf of the UNAIDS country representative, urged the stakeholders to respond highly to HIV/AIDS and to integrate all its issues into all their activities.

Alhajie Kebbeh of the national youth council expressed hope that the document would serve as a reference point for young people in the struggle to eradicate HIV/AIDS.

Pa Malick Ceesay, national co-ordinator of youth against aids network, who also doubles as the executive secretary of the national youth council, said his network was inline with the Gambia’s national policy guideline on HIV/AIDS which, he said, stated the need for initiating, formulating and reviewing of comprehensive national and sectoral policies and strategies related to HIV/AIDS in the Gambia.

The validation workshop which brought youth experts in various areas was facilitated by Njundu Drammeh, national coordinator of the Child Protection alliance.