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Behaviour Change Specialist with the National HIV/AIDS Commission, Cecilia Murray, as she conducted the workshop.

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Ocean Two General Manager Paul Collymore (left) along with staff members from throughout the company listening intently.

HIV/AIDS Commission hits hospitality

Staff of all levels at Ocean Two Resort and Residences were the first to benefit from a series of educational workshops to be put on by the National HIV/AIDS Commission, as they played host to the Commission’s Behaviour Change Specialist Cecilia Murray on Wednesday.

The series, which came out of a request made by the Barbados Workers Union after they were treated to a similar programme, is currently aimed at disseminating information and communicating with players in the industry one-on-one in a bid to get feedback to better tailor programmes towards specific target groups.

Speaking to The Barbados Advocate, Murray explained that the main idea behind the series was to debunk the myths that surround the virus. “We have some HIV workshops in the hotel industry where we come to give some education to hoteliers about the challenges that they might have and face with respect to things like sex tourism; or challenges of safety and health in the work space with respect to cleaning, and some of the myths or phobias that staff members may have with respect to dealing with persons that they may think are HIV positive,” she said.

Going on to say that the aim was to sensitise the members of the public and having staff at all levels involved, Murray added that it was all part of the ongoing drive to reach every person.

“It is very important because we recognise that HIV is not a local challenge – it is a global challenge. We just celebrated World AIDS Day on December 1 and there is a global campaign to reduce the numbers. So coming to the hotels, this is just another population that we are targeting with respect to our education,” she said.

Management of Ocean Two was pleased to start the ball rolling in the series and Janise Hurley, their Special Projects and Quality Assurance Coordinator, told The Barbados Advocate that the initiative was a timely one.

“We thought it would be a good opportunity for our staff to hear about HIV and AIDS. It is something that a lot of people don’t talk about too often, but at the hotel we like to keep our staff informed and up-to-date with anything that is happening around the world. It is very important and we want our staff to be healthy and have any questions answered by the right sources,” she said.

General Manager Paul Collymore saw the value and importance of the workshop and said that went hand-in-hand with the updating of the employee handbook as the overall orientation and sensitisation of staff with matters of the like was paramount. Noting that there was no tolerance for discrimination to either employee or guest, Collymore went on to say that the training would stand to help with things such as encounters with prophylactics.

“It is just about creating and heightening that awareness so that we can look at self-preservation from an employee standpoint and how do we treat to various items that could possibly be left in a room from guests in terms of the protection of oneself. We want to support national and global initiatives as well as looking at the incidence of contracting HIV and also supporting in the reduction in terms of the statistics recently put out by the Ministry of Health where they are seeing a reduction in the incidences in terms of the spread of HIV,” he said. (MP)

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