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BY EVANS MURANGANWA.

Harare, Zimbabwe. (News Of The South) – Songbirds Pauline Gundidza and Teererai Mugwadi have joined in the scaling of awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention since assuming the ambassadorial role of ‘Down to Zero’ campaign by the National AIDS Council (NAC).

In an interview recently with News Of The South, Pauline Gundidza said after attending a workshop organised by NAC they felt impelled to lead in the campaign to reduce new HIV/AIDS infections and reduce the mother-to-child transmission among other prevention strategies.

Teererai Mugwadi

“NAC did a great deal in educating us on the role of disseminating vital information on HIV/AIDS and with my fellow pal Teererai we felt obliged to take up the task,” said Gundidza.

She said as a way of encouraging voluntary testing and counselling to the public, they underwent HIV/AIDS testing in Victoria Falls where African Union World Aids Day commemorations were held.

“As a way of encouraging the general public on the need of being tested, we took it upon ourselves, me and Teererai to undertake the voluntary counselling and testing though we did not reveal our status to the public but that urge is what we want to inculcate in people, “bared the songstress.

Gundidza also lamented the glaring lack of vital information in some parts of the rural areas on HIV/AIDS and said they would want to spread the message to some parts of these areas.

“There is a lot of miscommunication on the scourge in the rural areas so it becomes imperative that we reach these places so that issues like stigma, prevention of mother-to child transmission and discordant couples(a couple where one partner is infected and the other is HIV negative)are dealt with,” proposed Gundidza.

She said in rural areas there is also the need to introduce mobile testing and counselling units since some find it very hard to access such facilities.

Gundidza said they will be targeting schools to increase their scope of disseminating information.

“We have already started in some schools and we want to continue with the campaign up to next year,” assured Gundidza.

Meanwhile, Gundidza said she has also penned a song on Cancer awareness since some cancers like Cervical Cancer are related to HIV/AIDS Infection.

The continental World Aids Day commemorations ran under the theme: “Getting to zero in Africa-Africa’s Responsibility, Everyone’s Responsibility”.

Artistes such as Adiona Maboreke – Chidzonga, dub poet Albert Nyathi, Derrick Mpofu, Teererai Mugwadi and Pauline Gundidza did the theme song of the commemorations.

The NAC campaign runs up to 2030.

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