The Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund, is conducting a two-day workshop titled, “Engaging Faith Based Organizations in HIV prevention”– a Training Manual for Program Managers”  on Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 October 2008.

Dr. Haitham Sweidan, Director of National AIDS Program, and Dr. Haitham al-Khayat, Senior Advisor for the Regional Director for the World Health Organization (Eastern Mediterranean Region-EMRO) will be conducting the workshop, which mainly aims at encouraging policy makers, programmers in the field and development practitioners to recognize the complex social, cultural and economic factors at play in HIV prevention and to partner with faith-based organizations to address them. The ultimate goal is to reverse the spread of HIV.

The two-day workshop is based on the UNFPA manual “Engaging Faith Based Organizations in HIV prevention” and consists of lectures on the role of religious organizations in preventing HIV/AIDS, taking into account the cultural and social context,  the successful experience of the WHO/EMRO in this regard,  Epidemiological Situation of HIV/AIDS, ways to identify, design and follow up on HIV prevention programmes undertaken by FBOs and to design plans for partnering with FBOs to halt the spread of the virus.

The workshop will be attended by the National AIDS Programme focal points in all governorates, in addition to the Ministry of Religious Affaires.

The workshop begins at 10:00am on Wednesday 22 October 2008 at the Mashta Hello Hotel in the Directorate of Tartous and will finish on Thursday 23 October 2008.