Pacific

NZ's Aids Foundation's Pacific branch welcomes Pacific police initiative

11:02 am on 12 February 2009

The New Zealand Aids Foundation's Pacific branch is in full support of a programme being designed by police officials in the Pacific who plan to help fight the spread of Aids.

Twenty one countries in the region including New Caledonia, Niue and Kiribati plan to introduce an awareness campaign about the virus that will be introduced by local police.

A health promoter of the New Zealand Aids Foundation for Pacific people's programmes, Phylesha Brown-Acton, says public awareness is essential and say fully behind the police project.

"When we're discussing issues around the Pacific I mean people still being killed for the simple fact that they're HIV positive. So having the police behind it and having some kind of understanding towards it and supporting it I think will offer more support to these individuals who are actually living with HIV and AIDS or their families affected by it."

Phylesha Brown-Acton of the New Zealand Aids Foundation.