IOM and its partners have provided HIV/AIDS prevention training to
more than 2,800 local residents of the communities of San Lorenzo
and Tambillo, and to Colombians who have crossed into Ecuador
fleeing the ongoing violence in their country.

IOM is providing its support to this project as part of its
Emergency Assistance Programme for Persons Displaced by Conflict
Along the Colombian Border.

Working with the Ministry of Public Health, the Provincial
Health Department of Esmeraldas, the “Salud Cordero”
Foundation and the Red Cross, the IOM training sessions are geared
towards health care providers and the local population in order to
strengthen the sexual and reproductive health services in the area
and to decrease the vulnerability of the population. 

For health workers, the 36-hour training sessions focus on
awareness-raising, transmission, integral management of persons
living with HIV, and pre- and post-HIV test counseling.

For the general population, the three-hour trainings are held in
schools and neighbourhood associations and include
awareness-raising, STDs, HIV/AIDS and AIDS prevention.

As part of this initiative that began last August, 618 persons
have decided to undergo the Tamizaje test which can detect the
presence of a variety of viral antibodies.

IOM and its partners also distribute information materials such
as posters, brochures, and flyers.  The information is also
strategically displayed in public places such as police stations,
naval bases, schools, Red Cross offices, fire brigade and civil
defence offices.  The mass media has also been engaged to
carry the message to all of the population.

Four offices have been established in the area to provide health
and HIV/AIDS counseling to patients.

Currently there are 14,300 Colombian refugees and 45,231 asylum
seekers in Ecuador.  Most of them live in extremely vulnerable
conditions.  Some 46 per cent of them live in the northern
border region, where IOM programmes are working to strengthen the
communities.

According to the Pan American Health Organization, 7,769 people
were diagnosed as people with HIV/AIDS in Ecuador between 1984 and
December 2005, 1761 of whom died in that period. Since the first
case was diagnosed, the number of people with HIV/AIDS has grown
annually even with weaknesses in the registration of HIV cases
resulting in many AIDS deaths being attributed to other causes.

For further information please contact:

Ana María Guzmán

Tel:+ (593)2-22-53-948/49

E-mail: "mailto:aguzman@oim.org.ec">aguzman@oim.org.ec