A MoU was signed by the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Center for Communicable Diseases (CFCD) at the Ministry of Health, to help address hygiene and education needs of underprivileged individuals and families covered by the IKRC.
The MOU seeks to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the UNAIDS’s 10 defined targets and help prevent new cases of HIV and AIDS, ISNA reported.
The eight MDGs, ranging from halving extreme poverty rates to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education by the target year 2015, form a blueprint agreed to in September 2000 by all the world’s countries and leading development institutions.
According to the terms of the MOU, following a primary-level prevention approach, the three bodies will cooperate to implement plans to provide support, education and hygienic services with regard to HIV/AIDS for poor families under IKRC’s coverage.
In the joint MOU, the UNAIDS representative pledged to share experience and strategic data with agencies in the field. In addition, workshops for the target community will be held in provinces and technical support will be provided to the IKRF.
The CFCD promised to exploit the capacities of medical science universities to identify and treat victims of HIV.
The IKRC pledged to revise the rules regarding support, empowerment, hygiene and education for HIV-infected people and their families and to interact with insurance companies to enhance the medical coverage of people under its coverage.
The MOU was signed by Fardad Doroudi, country director of UNAIDS in Iran, Mohammad Mahdi Guya, director of the CFCD and Mohammad Mohammadifard, deputy for international affairs, and Ali Mohammad Zolfaqari, IKRC’s deputy in charge of family health and support. It will be valid for two years and its extension will depend on mutual agreement and evaluation of the results.
The UNAIDS is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Its mission is to lead, strengthen and support an expanded response to HIV and AIDS that includes preventing transmission of HIV, providing care and support to those already living with the virus, reducing the vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV and alleviating the impact of the epidemic.
