Malau’s ‘K’ word decried

THE nurses’ fraternity in Papua New Guinea yesterday called on the National AIDS Council (NAC) to ban the word “koap” in its awareness campaign.
The massive campaign presented by Dr Clement Malau, had seen a great deal of controversy when it was first brought to public attention — until only recently when things began mellowing down.
But it seems the controversy might be re-ignited with the call by the nurses, who made strong condemnations for the use of word “koap” publicly, adding that it was not accepted by the community at large.
Three hundred nurses attending the PNG Nurses Research Symposium in Goroka this week called for the ban.
They said as mothers and nurses, they felt the use of the word was not good for their children, families, communities and the society.
“The word ‘koap’ must be done away with completely and replaced with another to suit the PNG communities,” the nurses said.
Dr Malau, a former National AIDS Council chairman, uses “koap” – a Tok Pisin word that means “to have sex” – to educate people on safe sex practices and the HIV/AIDS. The campaign is being carried out in the print as well as the electronic media.
The general public, Churches Council of Papua New Guinea, non-government organisations and concerned parents have made similar calls not too long ago to the NAC and the Health Department to get rid of the word.
The nurses also claimed that the campaign was not reaching the majority of the people.
They resolved to make recommendations to the council and department to use health workers, churches, educational institutions, NGOs, theatre groups and individuals to bring the HIV/AIDS information to the people.
Survey results presented by nurses from the Mount Hagen General Hospital stated that less information was received through the media even though millions of kina had been spent on the awareness campaign by the council.
Sisters Agatha Otto and Roselyn Kali presented that out of the 500 people interviewed only 14 per cent had access to receiving the HIV/AIDS information through the mass media, while the rest got their information through health workers, individuals, churches, and NGOs in the province.
They said, however, that the public had a general knowledge on the disease but lacked knowledge on how to live with HIV/ AIDS, possibly because emphasis in the campaigns were not on how to live with the illness.