“Human beings all over the world seem to have a proclivity and a huge propensity to find some reason to stigmatise people and put them in corners. The ‘you and us’ phenomenon is very much alive,” said Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy.He was at the time addressing a stakeholders’ meeting at the Grand Coastal Inn, East Coast Demerara, where the preliminary findings of a HIV/AIDS survey undertaken in local schools was unveiled.The survey, which was undertaken by the Caribbean Child Development Centre (CCDC) of the University of the West Indies and came as a result of collaboration with UNESCO and the Ministries of Health and Education, revealed that although persons are knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS in the school system, there is still evidence of stigma and discrimination against those that are infected and affected by the disease.The findings were presented by Research Fellow of UWI, CCDC,Cheap NHL Jerseys Online, Ms Joan Thomas.According to Minister Ramsammy, “We in Guyana have a moral imperative that in spite of this being a part of human nature we must fight against it. A country like Guyana,Cheap Jerseys, with such a huge faith-based background, has a moral imperative…For me this is not an option.”He asserted that there is no need for a reason to be uncovered to reject stigma or to determine why it drives HIV. And given that stigma does drive the HIV epidemic, it effectively serves as one of the consequences of its prevalence.The Minister asserted that HIV is a chronic disease, like many others that people are forced to live with but are still in receipt of love and affection from friends and family.? He noted that there is no reason that persons living with HIV cannot have the same privilege.Having mingled for more than a decade with persons,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, some of whom are HIV positive, the Minister asserted that he has not become infected. According to him, there are yet persons in society who have not accepted the fact that they cannot contract the disease simply by talking to, sharing a toilet seat or using the same utensils as an infected person, a state of affairs which was brought to the fore in the findings of the school survey.It was also highlighted in the survey that there are some students, teachers and even principals that would prefer that infected students be kept away from schools.“When we think that there might be a reason to stigmatise somebody we have lost the war. There must never be a reason; there can never be an understandable and acceptable reason for stigmatisation. Therefore, anyone who wants to take their time to see whether there might be a good reason to exclude a child from a school under suspicion of HIV is wrong, absolutely, unequivocally wrong…”And even as he conceded to the prevalence of stigma in the school system, the Minister committed to never hesitating when it comes to standing up on behalf of any child. Stigma is not only directed to students, as according to the Minister,Air Max 97 Undefeated Black, it was just recently that an individual who was desirous of becoming a teacher was scrutinised because that person was suspected to be HIV positive.“Stigma is alive in our country and there is no reason for any one of us to not concede that. In that respect we share that characteristic with every single country on earth,” he added.Nonetheless, he boasted that Guyana has done a much better job than many other countries. He added that Guyana does not have many examples of drastic cases of stigma and discrimination as is evident in some countries.But though the findings of the survey suggest that there exist stigma and discrimination in the school system,Cheap NFL Jerseys, it deduced that infected and affected students have the same experience as their comparison.In fact, Ms Joan Thomas, who presented the findings,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, reflected that neither perceived nor enacted stigma had an impact on the learning experience of students infected or affected by HIV as their performances were similar to students unaffected by the disease.The goal of the school survey, which was also undertaken in Saint Lucia, is aimed at strengthening research on HIV and AIDS education in the Caribbean in the quest to formulate comprehensive education sector policies and programmes on HIV and AIDS.