A DELEGATION from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United States (U.S.) Congress and pharmaceutical companies will visit Jamaica this weekend as part of efforts to get more local and U.S. companies to help fight HIV/AIDS in Jamaica.
A nine-member delegation should arrive in the island this afternoon and is slated to meet with Jamaican Government officials and representatives of the business community, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the media.
A release from the United States Embassy's office of public affairs said the team will assess U.S. Government programmes to combat HIV/AIDS in Jamaica, while trying to get companies in Jamaica and the United States to put more effort into combating the spread of the disease in the region.
The group is also on a fact-finding mission, as part of a bid to raise the awareness of American members of Congress as to how President George Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief could create new opportunities for controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS in the region.
TOUR
The group, led by Adolfo Franco, USAID's assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean; the chairman of the U.S. Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, Abner Mason and David Greeley, a senior director of external affairs at pharmaceutical giant Merck and Co., are also expected to tour key HIV/AIDS education and prevention centres.
They will visit the Jamaica Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Centre in inner-city Kingston, the offices of Jamaica AIDS Support, members of the private sector, the Ministry of Health, and HIV/AIDS-related NGOs such as the Mustard Seed Foundation, the Caribbean Regional Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (CRN+) and the St. Lucia AIDS Action Foundation.
The delegation, which also includes senior advisors and aides to U.S. Congressmen and women, returns to the United States on Sunday afternoon. The visit to Jamaica follows a week-long stop in Mexico and Brazil, both countries in the region critical to the management of the spread of the disease.
