MAKURDI — The British Broadcasting Corporation World Service Trust (BBCWST) has pledged to partner state governments and the media in Nigeria through its Enhancing Nigerians Response to HIV/AIDS (ENR) program, to fight the HIV/AIDS scourge in the country.

According to the coordinator of the program, Mrs. Helen Bassey, who spoke at a one-day sensitisation workshop for media men in Makurdi, the ENR program is a six-year program expected to span 2009-2016.

She stressed that the ENR programme is aimed at curtailing the spread of HIV/AIDS in developing countries of the world which, according to her, is also in tandem with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Bassey intimated that the BBCWST is working in seven states of the Federation, which includes Benue, Cross River, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Lagos, Ogun and Akwa Ibom states.

She emphasised that the organisation would partner with state governments through their various State Action Committees on HIV/AIDS and the media to raise the consciousness of the people on the dangers of the disease.

Helen stated that the overall goal of the workshop was to establish a media committee network in Benue that would formulate action plans to stem the spread of the disease in the state.