“People have cancer and they die. People have other viruses and they die within 24 hours. So if You have a virus called HIV and so what? Life goes on.
William Akuffo, CEO of Ghallywood Academy, has noted in an encouraging statement to Ghanaians to stop discriminating against people living with the disease.
He said: “If you want to give birth, you can go for donor egg and will still give birth. So what is going to happen is we are going to use today to tell the world that we in Ghana, whatever virus they have created, we don’t know where it came from but we are not scared of it. We are going to manage it so effectively that those who are testing positive in the near future will test negative.”
Mr. Akuffo, aside being the CEO of Ghallywood Academy of acting, is also a top Ghanaian film director.
He told News-One that he had tested negative for HIV/AIDS but that did not mean his world would have ended if he had tested positive.
Mr. William made the statements at a get-together for people living with the HIV/AIDS.
The programme was organized by Ghallywood Film Academy in collaboration with Apostolic Mission International at the Ghana Film Village, off the Tema-Afloa highway on Friday, November, 11, 2011.
Present were persons living with HIV/AIDS, students of Ghallywood and members of Apostolic Mission International, headed by Apostle Matel Gracia from the Congo.
The event was used to empower persons living with HIV/AIDS to keep hope alive as well as eliminate the fear and panic which gripped all who had the virus. Various speakers preached against discrimination against people living with the virus.
There was a general call on the public to go for HIV tests to know their status. As part of the event, students of Ghallywood Academy engaged in a number of activities with persons living with the virus. They sang, danced, ate and played football and volleyball.
Mr. Akuffo told News-One in an exclusive interview that the programme was a way of giving back to society.
He said it was good that people knew their status because it was one ways of controlling the spread of the disease. By next year, he said, his outfit would conclude a database to know how many people had the disease.
Currently, Ghallywood Academy is working on a standard movie with HIV/AIDS as the main theme. He encouraged filmmakers in Ghana to redirect their focus. “It shouldn’t always be about entertainment alone but also education. They should do more research and treat topics like HIV/AIDS. Some filmmakers don’t portray the right picture about HIV/AIDS and it is because they don’t know. Some characters in the movie get HIV and the next minute they have things on their body and the next thing they are dead. It is not true. It is a wrong perception they’ve put out there. So they should back up and research,” he said.
Source: News one
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