Body launched to care for the AIDS-hit

JEDDAH: The first official society to care for AIDS patients was launched on Tuesday night.
“The admission that the disease is present in the Saudi society is a step toward checking the spread of the fatal ailment that will aggravate if we keep silent about it,” Minister of Social Affairs Yusuf Al-Othaimin said
 while speaking at
 the inaugural function of the Saudi
 Charity Association
 for AIDS Patients on
Tuesday. Jeddah
 Gov. Prince Mishaal
 bin Majed also 
attended the func
tion.
Al-Othaimin said it is high time we dealt with the disease in a frank manner.
“No more do we
need to bury our
 heads in the sand in 
shame (if anyone of us is tested HIV positive) for the disease is found in all countries,” the minister said.
“The association has decided to adopt six programs to alleviate the suffering of AIDS patients in the Kingdom,” Dr. Sana Felimban, chairman of the board of directors of the society, said in her address.
They include intensified awareness campaigns, support and sponsorship programs of families affected by the disease, training and employment of the patients and their families, psychological, social and health support, studies on the social factors that contribute to the spread of the disease, Felimban added.
“According to official statistical figures there are 13,926 AIDS patients in the Kingdom at the end of 2008 while 55 percent of them were in the Makkah province,” she said.
While 3,538 of the patients were Saudis, bulk of the remaining were foreigners illegally staying in the country, she said.
“Besides awareness campaigns, the goals of the society are many. They include offering health, psychological and social services to the patients. It also aims to establish partnership with local social organizations in checking the spread of the disease in our conservative society,” she said.
She added that the ratio of the disease among men and women was five against one.
“Since youths suffer from the disease more than the old, the awareness campaigns should be beefed up among the youth,” she said.
Participating in the event, a 10-year-old AIDS patient Sarah said she hoped she would be cured of her disease and that she had been spending her life in hospitals while on the other hand, she yearned to play outside with other girls.
“I won’t stand here to beg for your tears and prayers,” she said. “I stand here and I see thousands of stories of agony and pain, occasions of remembering the smell of hospitals hall and the smell of death.
“It has been 3,000 days since this disease planted itself in my body, days gone where I wanted to enjoy my life as a child playing with toys.
“Instead of dreaming and hoping for medicine to cure my ill- ness, since age five this disease has circled my body and with it the eyes of my friends at school and the public, dismayed about my condition as I was some sort of an Alien, but I am not hopeless.”
Al-Othaimin promised aid to the newly created foundation and pledged to help the foundation’ activities in helping HIV/AIDS patients in the Kingdom.
Al-Othaimin commended Sarah for her courage and on her volunteer work in helping the public become aware of how much this disease can be devastating for people’s life.
Dr. Ali Al-Hanaki, director general of social affairs in Makkah province, urged the Saudi business community make contributions to the foundation.