For the majority of the time, I was engaged in research on HIV prevention for Jamaican youth–which culminated in a presentation of findings (Securing our Future_ Presentation) and the distribution of the Report, which is featured in the my previous post.

Port Antonio, Portland, Jamaica

In addition to that research, I was very busy traveling across the Jamaica, visiting five Social Development Commission (SDC) offices–Portland, Trelawny, St. Thomas, Kingston and St. Andrew, and St. James–to deliver key human rights materials, as part of the thrust to mainstream human rights (HR) in the everyday work of SDC community development officers.

The main training material that I used was the SEJ Community Development Manual for Trainers, which outlines the modules, subjects, presentations, forms and other useful tools for introducing residents to their development rights and responsibilities.

The Memorandum of Understanding signed between Jamaicans for Justice and the Social Development Commission in October 2009 sought to establish a partnership aimed at strengthening its officers for more effective community development programming. The commitment included:

1. Delivery of five training of trainers workshops to 65 participants,
2. Execution of a national print (newspaper, brochures and posters) and electronic (radio) multimedia campaign for four months,
3. Facilitation of nine community workshops across three unique communities and parishes reaching a minimum of 75 residents,
4. Establishment of an archive of HR materials in key locations in the parish, which are accessible to the public,
5. Integration of HR components in the annual plans of SDC officers as at March 2010,
6. Integration of HR as a key topic/ sub-topic in presentations by SDC officers to community leaders, etc.,
7. Distribution of digital support materials on HR to SDC officers in order to build their knowledge base on HR.

At a later date, when I’ve evaluated the key components of the MOU, I will publish the SWOT report, but preliminarily, all stakeholders agree that HR awareness is critical for community development.

HIV prevention

The following Report, Securing our Future: Lessons in HIV prevention for girls and young women (Jamaica) is a follow-up to the ‘Report Card on HIV Prevention for girls and young women, Jamaica’ (2006).

It presents current data on key points raised in the Report Card, outlines the recommendations of youth, from the National Youth Declaration, for addressing the gaps and challenges raised by the Report Card, and evaluates the data to justify the current value and importance of the Report Card.

The general position of the Report is, improving and increasing actions on HIV prevention for girls and young women is critical because “women are not only being infected with HIV more frequently than men, they are becoming infected at a younger age. The numbers of new infections peak among women between the ages 15 and 25 years, while for men this peak occurs a decade later, between 25 and 35 years old” (Mann & Tarantola: 1996).

Based on this situation, an absence of HIV prevention actions for girls and young women translates to an insecure and unsustainable future for all Jamaicans.

Although sex work is scoffed at by many in the society–especially because of the need to maintain the perception of a moral society on account of Jamaica’s notoriety as home to the most churches (in the world) per square mile–The reality is, sex work is a common source of income for poor women, and is becoming increasingly so for poor men.

As humans we have a natural instinct to survive–sex workers see their job as their means of survival, but the fact that it is illegal in Jamaica presents significant challenges in relying on it as a means of supporting the growth and development of self and family.

I find it pretty funny listening to people casting judgments on sex workers, because they feel that it was a deliberate choice–many of us with our tunnel views refuse to see how our Government is responsible. Our Government has a responsibility to provide the resources necessary to prepare the work force for the specific kinds of employment that are available and  it is also responsible for ensuring that work is available and accessible to All. Therefore, rather than casting judements on sex workers’ employment choice, let us, as responsible citizens, implore the Government of Jamaica to stop for a moment and critically assess the capacity of the Jamaican poor to respond to the demands of the labour market. Further, I ask us all to consider, what are we really doing, as a society, to guarantee secure, rewarding, and meaningful employment for Jamaica’s poor?

It cited the Victoria Jubilee Hospital, where I and my kin were born, as well as the Spanish Town Hospital as facilitating the use of extremely unhealthy practices while providing care to mothers immediately after delivery. The main issue of concern is the historically routine practice of making two adult women and their infants share a single twin size bed at such a vulnerable, sensitive, and personal time.

Both the Medical Association of Jamaica and the Nurses’ Association of Jamaica condemned the practice of bed sharing on maternity wards as unhealthy and dangerous. This certainly, for us as Jamaicans, highlight another sphere within which denial of basic human rights is evident–our inability to access safe and adequate health care.

We are told that our human resources are our most valuable, further we tell our children that they are the future, but we fail miserably, in telling them that we as a Government and people have not been doing enough to guarantee for them a quality life. For me, this story of bed sharing on twin beds at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital is a memory that’s truly unforgettable. Like so many horror stories shared since my mom delivered me there in 1979, I came to experience my own during my stay in 2003. Not only was I made to share on a twin bed with other human beings, but I had no choice when night came and I had to welcome countless millions of roaches as well.

The roaches descended on us from surreptitious caveats. I remember standing with my infant in one hand and my belongings in the other, anxiously anticipating the break of dawn. The experience was unforgettably horrendous and it underscores how little value we, as a society, place on the women who reproduce our next generation and how unaware we are of the psychological traumas that such human rights denials have on our children.

Let us dare to care and dare to provide safe and adequate health care for All Jamaicans. The health of our maternity wards must be thoroughly investigated as the experiences of unsafe conditions and inadequate health care are not mere tales, rather they are Real experiences that should be used and must be harnessed to stimulate development and change.

We need to show all our young ones and mothers that we care for and love them. Let’s pressure the Ministry and Minister of Health to change the situation NOW!

Q. What is AIDS?

A. Acquired (conditions are not inherited, but are acquired from environmental factors, such as virus infections) Immunodeficiency (the viruses gradually cause deficient immunity, which reflects poor nutrition and low resistance to infections and cancers) Syndrome (viruses cause several kinds of diseases, each with characteristic signs and symptoms).

AIDS is caused by a retrovirus that infects lymph glands and destroys lymphocytes through gene alteration, spreading the disease between individuals mostly through semen, blood, uterine secretions, breast milk, and placenta.

Q. What is HIV?

A. Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a retrovirus, which lacks DNA, therefore, depend on the DNA of other bodily cells like lymphocytes to reproduce. HIV is a highly variable virus which mutates very readily. This means there are many different strains of HIV, even within the body of a single infected person.

There are at least two types of viruses that can cause AIDS, AIDS related conditions, and cancers in human beings. Visit this link for details of HIV Groups and subtypes and see the summary of the two types below:

1. HIV-1 is the most common cause of AIDS worldwide, except in West Africa, where HIV-2 is relatively common. Scientists can identify up to nine major genetic subtypes of HIV-1
2. HIV-2- appears to be less virulent than HIV-1

Q. What is a virus?

A. A virus is a tiny poisonous particle that can cause disease and is too small to see with an ordinary microscope. Viruses depend on the living host cells like the lymph cells to grow and survive.

Viruses can be divided into DNA and RNA viruses. DNA viruses contain genes that direct virus growth. RNA viruses lack DNA and depend on the genes inside of other cells for growth and reproduction of the virus. HIV 1 is a n RNA virus, also called a retrovirus, because it randomly  reverses, transcribes, and inserts RNA into the DNA of the host cells, which in turn function abnormally or are killed.

Q. What are the stages of progression from HIV to AIDS?

A. There are four distinct stages in the development of HIV to AIDS. Visit this link for details of the Stages of Progression from HIV to AIDS or read the summary below:

1. Prodrome- the time during which aches, fever, and headache are the most common symptoms.
2. Latency- the time when overt symptoms are absent, the infection persists in the lymph glands and spreads by way of lymphocytes migrating from these lands
3. Generalized lymph gland enlargement and or autoimmune diseases, such as kidney or bone marrow failure occur
4. AIDS- the body will experience wasting, poor resistance to all kinds of infections; various forms of cancer and lymph gland destruction occur

Q. What is the function of lymphocytes?

A. Lymphocytes are white blood cells. They feed other cells, control cell growth, and guard against infection. They are the most common type of cell in our biological defense system- the immune system. They help prevent cancers by controlling cell growth and they help to protect against infections by producing antibodies (proteins that fight infections).

Q. How does HIV affect the immune system?

A. Each day you come in contact  with many infectious diseases, but your immune system protects you from getting sick. When you do get an infection the immune system manufactures antibodies that help fight the infection. When you get well, your body usually becomes immune to that particular infection. This is called acquired immunity, which means you will not get the disease again.

As the HIV infected lymphocyte produces antibodies, HIV is also reproducing. People do not develop effective acquired immunity to HIV because it grows in the very cells that produce antibodies. The destroyed or damaged lymphocytes in a HIV positive individual impairs the immune system from responding properly, making you much more susceptible to some of the many infections and diseases that exist within the environment, for example Tuberculosis.

Without a healthy immune system you would be sick all of the time. You would also be likely to develop malignant  (cancerous) growth of cells within your body. Thus a damaged immune system  fails to battle cancers that frequently  invade people with AIDS. As HIV progresses to AIDS in a human body, people ususally contract infections that are normally prevented by healthy antibody-producing and migrating white blood cells. Such infections are called opportunistic infections because they take advantage of the damaged immune system.