The STARS

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The STARS

The Kpando STARS is a community-based youth-led organisation in Kpando, Ghana.

17/10/2021

Future is unknown

01/12/2020

Today is World AIDS Day. Unfortunately we can't go into our communities and continue with our activities due to COVID-19.

COVID-19 is a difficult time for everybody, but especially for the people who live with HIV/AIDS. During lockdowns it was hard for people to attend clinic days and receive the medication they need. People also fear that others might discover that they are HIV positive and therefore decided to hide their medication first, but later on stop taking their medication completely.

Help us to end the stigma on HIV/AIDS to make sure that everyone feels fee to take their medication so that we can protect each other!

13/07/2020

Last Friday we had our last session, interactions and the option to see more art works from people all over the world, related to HIV/AIDS. We learned much more about the treatment there is for HIV. Luckily all your HIV medication in Ghana is covered by the Health Insurance. This makes it possible for everyone to start treatment and to lower your viral load, so that you can't transmit HIV to your friends, partner and relatives.

Maybe you got a bunch of questions after our messages of last week, but you don't want to ask them public. Feel free to send us a private message, or an email to: thestarsvoice@gmail.com. We are there to answer all your questions!

10/07/2020

Yesterdays we learned so many new things, continue for a small summary on our findings.

We all attended a workshop what learned us more about mental health issues and HIV. This often comes together as people are depressed or face other mental health problems what results in poor HIV outcomes, e.g. not taking medication, the viral load is not suppressed and therefor you can pass the virus on to other people.

HIV is not only in our body, it became a social issue (one of the reasons why so many people living with HIV also have mental health problems). This makes it hard for people living with HIV, whilst they only have to take a few pills a day to suppress the virus in their blood and live a healthy life.

Many gay and le***an people living with HIV fear stigmatization and are scared to get tested. This showed us how important it is to include everyone and to educate ourselves about gay and le***an people who live with HIV.

We will continue to advocate against the stigma on HIV and AIDS. If we work together, if we embrace people living with HIV, the chance that they take their medication is higher what results in elimination of HIV. And that is what we have to fight for!

09/07/2020

In yesterdays session of the AIDS 2020 Conference: Virtual, we learned that you can live a long life when you take your treatment. Did you know that there was a patient in Lisbon, who was diagnosed on the age of 84 years? This patient died on the age of 100 years. It is amazing to hear such stories what shows that everyone can study, start a family, make career and become old even though you have HIV.

It was sad to hear that many people reported stigma whilst living with HIV. Stigma was experienced in denial of services, unnecessary precautions like wearing face mask, double gloves, no touching/hugging, but also gossips from people in their direct environment.
Unfortunately, the stigma does not go away. But together we can change this! This means that we have to take ACTION now. People living with HIV/AIDS do have the SAME RIGHTS as every other person!

08/07/2020

We keep learning each day from the 23rd International AIDS 2020 Conference Virtual. Here are a few things we learned yesterday:

- Youth from all over the world experience stigmatization and discrimination by health workers. It was very sad to hear this, and this is one of the reasons why The STARS has to continue, to break the silence about HIV/AIDS.

- Youth has to be united to fight together against the stigmatization and discrimination of HIV/AIDS.

- U=U. This means that if your viral load (the quantity of HIV virus in your blood) is UNDETECTABLE and you take your medication as prescribed by your physician, you CANNOT share HIV with your partners.

We want to end with an inspiring quote of a young person living with HIV: ''Being born with HIV was never the end of my story, it was only the beginning.''

07/07/2020

Yesterday we kicked off at the 23rd International AIDS 2020 Conference: Virtual. It was a day filled with many interesting presentations, art exhibits and space to network with others. Kafui attended a group to discuss advocacy and the personal life for people living with HIV. We continue today with many more workshops, presentations and keep you updated about it!

05/07/2020

We are extremely happy and proud that we are able to attend the 23rd International AIDS Conference 2020 Virtual. Due to COVID-19 we are not able to travel to America, but it is an honor that we have made it so far with a selected e-poster and participation in the Global Village and Youth Programme. We will update you this week on our experience of this conference!

03/07/2020

Kafui is attending the Youth Ambassador programme of the AIDS 2020 Conference: Virtual. He is nominated together with 35 other young people who can make a change for People Living with HIV/AIDS. We are very proud of Kafui and we hope that this is a start for more positive changes towards people living with HIV/AIDS in the Volta Region, but also other parts of Ghana.

26/05/2020

“The man in the picture is a doctor and the woman is there for advice from the doctor, how to stay with people living with HIV and how to play with them and not to stigmatize them against their diseases.” - Emmanuel

17/05/2020

‘’I can see a boy talking to younger children in a compound house. It represents education. Educating the children about HIV/AIDS and how to live with it. If you don’t educate them about it, they would not know if they are having it or not. It can also cause more harm to the person who is having the disease, if he or she is not treating it.’’ - Nancy

08/05/2020

‘’This card is to educate people to care for people with HIV/AIDS and they shouldn’t stigmatize them. By helping them visiting the hospitals for HIV/AIDS treatments, to help them live long life.’’ - Donkor

30/04/2020

‘’This picture tells me that one sister is sharing her own food to the other sister. It represents kindness and by sharing the food they can’t get HIV through it.’’ - Paulina

21/04/2020

“I can see three women working together. I want to educate people that if a person is HIV positive you can work with the person. You can work together without getting HIV.” - Enyonam

15/04/2020

‘’Ghanaians and other nations should not stigmatize people living with HIV/AIDS. It is not everyone’s passion to have it, but can occur accidentally, when measures to prevent HIV/AIDS are not observed. Everyone can get HIV so do not stigmatize.” - Donkor

09/04/2020

“I see two boys. One is doing wound care for the younger brother. You can protect yourself and care for people living with HIV.” - Enyonam

30/03/2020

‘’This picture shows 2 sisters sleeping on 1 small mat on the floor. It represents for me that you can share the same mat, without getting HIV/AIDS. I like to teach people that you cannot get infected by sleeping on the same bed.’’ - Paulina

24/03/2020

The STARS is worried about the impact of COVID-19 in this world and especially in Ghana. We therefore urge you to follow this advise:

'If you MOVE; the virus MOVES.
If you STOP; the virus STOPS.'
Let us all STAY at HOME!

Address

Kpando

Website

http://www.hardthaven.org/

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