New Amsterdam getting closer to 24hr counselling, HIV testing site

Paulette Henry

The New Amsterdam Mayor and Town Council in collaboration with several stakeholders, is getting closer to establishing a 24-hour Counselling and Testing Centre in the town to help in the fight to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The establishment of the testing centre is a follow up to the council’s municipal declaration (signed in April) renouncing Stigma, Discrimination and Homophobia. According to Paulette Henry, the Project Coordinator, “the New Amsterdam Town Council has a task force in place to address the spread of HIV/AIDS within key populations”. With this as its focus, the centre is intended to make Counselling and HIV Testing easily and readily accessible to the ‘most at risk’ population.

While the centre is being established under the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Youth Empowerment Initiative,