Men’s health campaign to go live on Wednesday

The City of Windhoek, in partnership with Ministry of Health and Social Services, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), AMICAALL and other stakeholders, will host a Men’s Health Services Campaign on Wednesday, 19 July within the Khomasdal Constituency, mainly targeting men from this constituency and other constituencies in the informal settlements.

The venue will be at the Charmaine Mao Zedong High School and the aim of the campaign is to engage men 18 years and above in dialogue regarding their uptake of health services.

As part of this campaign onsite health services tests such as: BP, PSA, Cholesterol, Haemoglobin, Diabetes, body mass index (BMI), HIV and AIDS will be made available to all men that participate in the campaign.

The event will also see a number of other service providers displaying information about their various service offerings and referrals such as Community based programmes on GBV, Psychosocial support services such as counselling and referrals to Medical Male Circumcision and, prostate specific antigen screening.

Men’s health, access and uptake of health services has been identified as an issue of concern globally, regionally and nationally. The campaign is aimed at recognising the health needs of men as they too play a crucial role in the promotion of a healthy nation. Men have for far too long been identified as perpetrators of many social ills such as Gender Based Violence, this campaign will strive to recognise and promote the role that man can play as partners in efforts to find solutions to social and health challenges that our societies experience in Namibia.

This initiative stems from The Mayor’s solemn commitment to HIV prevention as Champion of the Paris Declaration of 1 December 2014 on Fast-Track Cities in Namibia.

In this role, the Mayor facilitated the signing of the declaration by other Mayors in Namibia, and co-hosted a Community Mobilization and Engagement event on Elimination of Mother to Child HIV/AIDS Transmission (EMTCT) in partnership with the Office of the First Lady during 2016, with support from the Ministry of Health and Social Services and UNAIDS. Both events are amongst a number of activities planned as the CoW contribution to the global agenda of ending AIDS by 2030.