THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA’S COMBINED REPORT ON THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN & PEOPLES’ RIGHTS & INITIAL REPORT ON THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA Currently, 62% percent of women and 68% of men with no education say that the risk of getting the HIV virus can be reduced by using condoms and limiting sex to one uninfected partner; this compares with 75 percent of women and 76 percent of men with secondary or higher education. Government continues to work with community radios to raise awareness. Government has engaged in a series of sensitization programmes to address this imbalance, and to educate women, at all levels on the advantages of condom use for the protection against sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS inclusive. Furthermore, sensitization programmes at village levels, through community leaders, has been a Government priority to address the imbalance between the urban and rural areas on access to information regarding the prevention of, medical services and social support available to patients of HIV/AIDS. For example, billboards, radio programmes, in English and local languages, television programmes such as music and drama and print media, are tools utilized by Government in its efforts to sensitize the public. Free ARV drugs are also given to persons with H-I-V and treatment for other diseases associated with HIV such as tuberculosis is also easily accessible to patients, at an affordable price. The Government through the Ministry of Health also conducts periodic health surveys to monitor the prevalence of the aforementioned diseases and for record keeping. This information is relevant for planning medical care and services for the persons affected with these diseases. The Government has also established more centres for HIV/AIDS prevention, control and treatment. These include HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT), Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT), HIV Clinical Care and Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART). There are currently, forty-five (45) centres providing HCT services and thirty-two (32) centres providing PMTCT and ten (10) ART services, across the country. The ART canters also offer Behavioural Change communication (BCC) services to the community and Post Exposure prophylaxis (PEP), specifically for survivors of gender based violence and heath workers. In 2007, the former president Yaya Jammeh conducted a HIV and AIDs treatment program, which ran through to 2016. This program has been identified as a huge set back for affected persons who enrolled 70