Jamaican Researcher

Youth Declaration on HIV Prevention for Jamaica

I’ve more work to do than I have time to make posts to this blog. I’m up to my ears in work. In fact, I’ve got the hangovers from a workshop I facilitated with leaders of Albion, St. Thomas yesterday, and today I’ve gotta complete the training package for educating female inmates about their economic and social rights.

I stole this little time from my sleep to post the the Youth Declaration on HIV Prevention (draft). This tool will be used to drum up support for HIV Prevention services for young Jamaicans, which is a First. Jamaica Family Planning Association is the host agency of advocacy for HIV Prevention for Jamaican Youth. It has taken seriously the need to meet the Millennium Development Goal of combating HIV/AIDS. Two of the three indicators of this goal are the prevalence amongst pregnant girls and young women 15-24 years and the number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS–isn’t it clear then that HIV is now a youth disease.

Jamaicans are resistant to youth getting information about HIV, because of fears of that their empowerment will lead to bravery to engage in sex. I say to all Jamaicans, “hiding children from information won’t protect them from harm, it will only make them vulnerable to harm, as they won’t be knowledgeable enough to make the right choices.

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