WELCOME REMARKS LUNCHEON MEETING WITH SHIPPING AGENCIES
Ambassador’s Sala, Traders Hotel, Roxas Blvd.
31 July 2008

Dr. Yolanda Oliveros, Director, National Center for Disease Prevention and Control, DOH; Dr. Ferchito Avelino, Director, Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC) Secretariat, DOH; Asst. Secretary Ma. Teresa Soriano of DOLE; Dr. Vicente Salas, Team Leader, PRIMEX; Distinguished Guests, Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen:

On behalf of PRIMEX and our two NGO associates ACHIEVE and Remedios AIDS Foundation (RAF), I welcome you to this Luncheon Meeting with Shipping Agencies under Component 2 (the OFW Component) of the ADB Regional Technical Assistance for Fighting HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific – Subproject 5: Strengthening Country Response to HIV/AIDS among High-Risk Groups (otherwise known as RETA 6321).

I hope you enjoyed your lunch. We are very pleased about the excellent turnout of participants at this meeting, particularly from the shipping agencies, and from our partner agencies, such as DOLE, POEA, UNAIDS, IMO, and of course, DOH. I believe that you  will find this meeting useful and I look forward to hearing your views and reactions to the findings of our recently completed study on Seafarers’ HIV/AIDS Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP), Vulnerabilities and Risks.

We wish to acknowledge the presence of the representatives of the other government agencies concerned with the welfare of our overseas Filipino workers, particularly the seafarers. These agencies with us today include the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), International Maritime Organization (IMO), and the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) in the Philippines .

This Project commenced in June 2007 and is to end in November this year. This Project is actually Subproject No. 5 of RETA 6321, which has 11 subprojects. Its aim is to improve the effectiveness of the national and local response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic among intravenous drug users (IDUs) (under Component 1) and overseas Filipino workers (under Component 2) and provide support to DOH in developing more feasible approaches and/or interventions for these groups at risk.

In the first phase of the Project, some of you may have collaborated with our consultant team in the conduct of the KAP Study which involved one-on-one interviews with seafarers employed by your manning agencies.  The results of the KAP study were presented at a Research Dissemination Forum held last 10 April 2008 at the Linden Suites in Ortigas Center.

At the tripartite meeting among DOH, ADB, and PRIMEX, which was held the day after the Forum at DOH,  it was strongly suggested that a public-private partnership (PPP) in HIV/AIDS prevention be initiated between DOH and the private manning agencies as an important step towards preventing the spread of this dreaded disease.

This Meeting is intended to present the highlights of our Team’s findings on the levels of HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes, and practices among male Filipino seafarers  and seek your views and insights on the priority issues which our Team identified.  We need to hear from you (i) your recommendations on concrete doable activities on how we can partner to scale up HIV prevention for seafarers while on-board or on-shore; (ii) what are the challenges you face in scaling up HIV prevention; and (iii) what is it that you need to be able to do what needs to be done.

Ms. Malu Marin, our Deputy Team Leader, will provide you with a brief overview on best practices and recommendations of selected manning agencies following the presentation of the highlights of the KAP study to be presented by our Epidemiologist, Dr. Ofelia Saniel.  

The meeting kits which were given to you upon registration contain the PowerPoint presentations and a Project primer highlighting the findings of the KAP study for your reference.

Allow me to thank you all for the excellent cooperation and support that you have provided our Team during the conduct of the KAP study. We thank DOH, DOLE, OWWA, POEA, DFA, IMO, the seafarers’ associations, the seafarers themselves, and you, the manning agencies for allowing us to conduct interviews with your seafarers within your premises and with the assistance of your staff.

It is our fervent hope that at today’s meeting, we can plant the seed of a strong and vigorous public-private partnership in HIV prevention among our seafarers and their families.

Mabuhay at magandang hapon po sa inyong lahat!