Mitchell said nothing should concern us more than the growing HIV epidemic.
He made the remarks after presenting an address on “Drivers of Business” to about 200 participants at the PNG Human Resources Institute annual seminar last week
Mitchell said it is now part of Nasfund policy that every talk must cover HIV and AIDS.
He said no one can legislate behavioral change nor can people be coerced into following practices that minimize infection rates.
“All we can do is keep reminding ourselves and everyone around us that we have to individually and collectively as a community take responsibility for our actions.”
Mitchell said it was horrific that recent statistics suggests that over two-thirds of women in our society had been the victims of serious violence and the majority of those women have been the victim of serious violence in their own homes.
“What are we doing? Now if we overlay these statistics with the fact that only 40 percent of women have functioning literacy and school attendance rates for their children barely reach 50 percent, what we are in effect doing is creating a perpetual cycle of second-class citizens,” he said.
Mitchell urged leaders to take up the issue.
“If we cannot elevate the status of women, guarantee their safety and educate and protect children, then the battle to contain HIV becomes all the more difficult, albeit lost,” he said.
“Men and women, elevating the status of women, protecting children and combating HIV and AIDS is really the biggest leadership challenge for every person in the country today,” he added.
