The Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD), in collaboration with the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), has launched a one-year programme titled, 'Education and Economic Empowerment for Persons with Disabilities - Responding to HIV and AIDS'.

The project seeks to establish a creative approach to sensitising members of the disabled community on matters of HIV and AIDS.

Executive director of the Council, Ransford Wright, said that the aim of the programme, "is to ensure that persons with disabilities are fully aware and alert and also empowered to know that HIV/AIDS is a disease that is real and anyone of us can be affected."Wright added that persons with disabilities were like other persons and as such would engage in sexual activities.

Citing statistics relating to HIV/AIDS among the disabled community, Wright said that it was very limited but the council was aware of persons who had contracted the HIV/AIDS virus. "Some have died and some are still with us," he said.

Creative approach

The executive director explained that during the course of the programme, key rings, T-shirts with the message 'Check yourself before you wreck your life'; condoms and brochures in braille would be distributed. This, he said, was part of the creative approach the council would be taking to sensitise the public.

Wright informed that the council has not yet received funding for the income generating aspect of the programme, and he was appealing to all organisations to come on-board. "We are still hoping that other persons will come on-board during the year. If we get additional funding, I'm sure we will be able to see tangible results at the end of the year," he said.

The disabled community constitutes one of the most vulnerable groups in Jamaica. Data from the Statistical Institute show that of the 200,000 persons living with a disability in the country, less than one per cent is gainfully employed.