This course is designed for nurses and counselors in health care settings and community settings who wish to increase their comfort in providing support for prevention and health promotion to persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHIV). This course is designed to be applicable for participants from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), health care, and community settings.
Click here to read the entire document as a webpage.

Provider Initiated HIV Testing and Counseling

This is a One day Training Programme.
- targeted to health care providers who are charged with the responsibility for establishing and implementing provider-initiated approach to HIV testing and counseling. This would include health care providers in the public, NGO and private sectors.  Priority health care delivery settings include STI clinics, ante-natal clinics, TB treatment facilities, secondary care, women’s health settings, and clinics with high HIV seroprevalence rates as well as private practitioners.

It is assumed that individuals participating in this training would have a good working knowledge of HIV/AIDS basic issues, knowledge of public health system in their country, and a role in the health care delivery system where they would likely be in a position to recommend HIV testing to patients they perceive as being at risk. Read more on this --

The Pan American Health Organization HIV Caribbean Office  (PHCO) recently conducted its first regional activity in St. Maarten.

PHCO organised the workshop in its role as executing agency for the European Union Project geared towards strengthening the integration of the British and Dutch Overseas Territories in the regional response to HIV/AIDS.

The theme of the workshop was "Strengthening the Capacity of the Dutch and British Overseas Countries and Territories to Reduce Stigma & Discrimation, enhance delivery of HIV Services, and strengthen participation of people living with HIV in the HIV response: A Community Consultation."

During the two-day meeting, members from the six Dutch territories working in the field of HIV/AIDS met to discuss the logistics of this project, and give their input. 

The objectives of the meeting were: to present the project to persons living with HIV (PLHIV) in the Dutch and British OCTs; formulate recommendations for meaningful and equitable participation of PLHIV in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the project, and to identify priority actions for strengthening of networking and human rights of PLHIV, reduction of stigma and discrimination, and expansion of access to HIV treatment, care and support services.

According to Suzette Moses-Burton, HIV/AIDS Programme Manager and EU Project Focal point for St. Maarten: A number of critical issues were discussed including the role of people living with HIV/AIDS in the national and response, particularly at policy and decision-making level, development of partnerships between the national programme and members of the community and defining the types of support and interventions needed by the plwha community.

The meeting concluded after two days of intense discussions and deliberations, on a broad range of topics related to the concerns of people living with HIV, with a set of very clear agreements among the participants and actions for next steps which included the establishment/strengthening of support groups on all the Dutch Caribbean territories as well the establishment of a Dutch Caribbean support network to increase communication and exchange ideas and developments within the PLHIV community of the territories.

CCNAPC strives to empower its members to build strong national, territorial and regional responses to HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean region ... and regional responses to HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean region by reinforcing member leadership and building programme management capacity primarily through peer collaboration.

Suzette Moses-Burton during the [RED] campaign in 2008.

Suzette Moses-Burton, HIV/AIDS Programme Manager has been named Person of the Year for 2008 by both daily newspapers on St. Maarten, namely TODAY and The Daily Herald.

According to the TODAY they chose Moses-Burton as Person of the Year, because she had built a career around a theme that has brought many people on the island together for a common goal.

The Daily Herald on the other hand named Moses-Burton as Person of the Year based on the fact that she is no stranger  to the fight against HIV/AIDS in St. Maarten and the region, especially with the launch in 2008 of the successful Talk [RED] Campaign, an educational initiative that The Daily Herald stated became red hot.

The four year long [RED] Campaign was launched on World AIDS Day 2007 with the slogan Talk [RED], which was introduced to the official 12 [RED] businesses, its employees and the public in January 2008. It has been rather successful, and now in 2009 the campaign goes into its second year with the slogan Think [RED], Do Safe. Moses-Burton was quoted as saying in the TODAY newspaper  How can I make HIV/AIDS sexy? I wanted people to start talking about it. Twelve companies have each adopted a month, and during their month brought awareness about HIV/AIDS to its employees and the public.

Suzette Moses-Burton is well deserving of this nomination of person of the year for 2008. As she stated in a World AIDS Day speech this year, There is still much we have to do and the road will be long and arduous. It will call for new leaders to be identified and to use their influence.