Latest update August 4th, 2026 12:30 AM
Guyana no longer priority state for HIV prevalence …but regional funding adversely affected – NGO Executive Director
Since Guyana has been reportedly no longer listed as a high priority state, overseas funding has been adversely affected, according to Artistes In Direct Support’s Executive Director, Desiree Edghill.
Artistes In Direct Support’s Executive Director, Desiree Edghill
Edghill noted that overseas funding has shifted to countries with the highest ratios of HIV victims, thus seeing her organisation, which was previously funded by 18 organisations, now receiving such assistance from only two. She expressed concern that those two agencies would also “close shop” with her entity, possibly by this month end.
She said, Artistes In Direct Support is now mulling the idea of social contracting with Government, as well as approaching other avenues of global funding.
A.C.T., acronym for Accountability Credibility and Transparency, the foundation upon which Artistes In Direct Support stands, was laid twenty-two years ago and was the brainchild of the late Keith Andre Sobryan. His vision of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) focused on creating behaviour change through the use of their theatrical talents and peer education is kept alive through the hard work and dedication of Ms. Edghill and team.
Among their many objectives is Sensitisation on HIV through performing arts, HIV/AIDS prevention, Support groups and community mobilisation, providing linkage to care and treatment, and voluntary counselling and testing. They also provide gender-based violence support groups, Life skills and risk reduction counselling, Training of Peer Educators, Awareness sessions for in- and out-of-school youths, dramatic presentations, and writing, directing and production of programmes and plays. They also aim to create and deliver a gender-sensitive curriculum to institutionalised youths
As statistics would dictate, the exact origin of the disease is unknown. The first reported AIDS case in the Caribbean occurred in Jamaica in 1982, followed by eight cases among gay and bisexual men in Trinidad and Tobago. In the early days of the epidemic, more men were affected than women. However, HIV/AIDS clearly was becoming a general population issue and was no longer a disease solely of gay or bisexual men. Contrary to popular belief, the primary mode of HIV transmission in the region is heterosexual sex. The number of new HIV infections among women became and continues to be higher than those among men. Currently, the Caribbean is the only area outside of Sub-Saharan Africa where women and girls outnumber men and boys living with HIV.
There is a large degree of variation of HIV prevalence between the 21 Caribbean countries. Currently, there are two countries where the national prevalence is over 2 percent, those being The Bahamas, and Belize. In Jamaica and Haiti, the HIV rate is estimated to be about 1.8 percent, while in Trinidad and Tobago the rate is 1.5 percent. The rate in Guyana and Suriname is between 1 and 1.1%. In Barbados and the Dominican Republic, the rate is 0.9% and 0.7% respectively. Cuba has the lowest rate, which is under 0.2 percent. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Caribbean appears to have been overshadowed by the seemingly more severe problems in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the countries with more active and highly visible activism.
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