Inter Press Service - June 7, 2001
Candida Ng

Youth delegates got to tell non-governmental organisations and governments in the Asia-Pacific, and health and AIDS experts what they thought of current approaches to stem the spread of the pandemic.

The common theme through the discussions on HIV/AIDS at the Third Asia-Pacific Intergovernmental Meeting on Human Resources Development for Youth, organised by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), was the need for pragmatic, honest and accurate information about the pandemic geared especially to young audiences.

"We need to teach not only in the books," explained Pira Pewnim, a Thai student who lamented the lack of youth-friendly health services.

"The access to information outside schools, outside organisations, they have to be improved. No one is going to talk to us about it because people are going to think that we're weird asking about these topics. This is essential for the youth of the future," he added.

Without effective health services and information, many young people are left to obtain information about HIV/AIDS and other issues about their sexual and reproductive health from other sources -- the mass media, school and their peers.

Yet as Pudthila Srisontisuk, another Thai student, admitted, "Friends and peers don't always have the correct information We need to find the right channel where HIV/AIDS is viewed in a supportive manner, but is not praised."

"Today we have heard that information is not enough, that we need to go beyond information to health services and we need to have the life skills," said Steve Kraus of the South-East Asia and Pacific inter-country team of the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS).

The discussions on HIV/AIDS had added relevance also because Jun. 5 marked the 20th year since the first cases of AIDS were discovered in California, the United States.

Today, 36 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, of which 6.4 million are in the Asia-Pacific.

The pandemic is hurting people at their most productive years -- half of new cases are being detected among people below the age of 25 years -- which is why experts say young people need to be given effective, creative and correct information so they can protect themselves from HIV/AIDS.

More than 6,500 young people are infected with HIV daily, or at the rate of five per minute, according to U.N. documents.

The susceptibility of young people is why governments and health workers need to review the kind of messages their programmes on AIDS are sending, experts here say.

Marina Mahathir, president of the Malaysian AIDS Council and daughter of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, said, "Lecture-type programmes are not only ineffective, they tend to be one-offs and do not develop the types of skills that allow young people to sustain safe behaviour."

She continued, "It is important to note that many studies have shown that sex education does not lead to increased sexual activity. Indeed it often helps to delay first intercourse and if it occurs, young people are more likely to take precautions against pregnancy, STDs and HIV infection."

The youth speakers also said the information disseminated about HIV/AIDS should not just be biological, but should address the emotional aspects of relationships too.

Information about HIV/AIDS are particularly crucial to women, who are more vulnerable to getting HIV/AIDS because of economic, biological, social and cultural factors. Currently, 80 percent of women living with HIV/AIDS contracted it from their only sexual partner, U.N. figures show.

For instance, Mahathir reasoned that "tragically misguided thinking" had led to young girls getting HIV from men who believed that sex with virgins would cure them of the disease.

UNAIDS statistics that revealed that 60 percent of new infections were among girls and young women between 15 and 24.

Women are also at a disadvantage because of the patriarchal societies they live in.

Promiscuity among men is tolerated much more than women's, with many women giving in to men's sexual needs because of the fear that they might go to someone else, said Maire Bopp-Du-Pont, a 26- year-old journalist from French Polynesia who is living with HIV.

Thus, some speakers stressed that there was a need for sex and HIV/AIDS education to be gender sensitive, because men and women encountered different problems when it came to these issues.

They urged the participation of youth and the promotion of peer educators as the best way of reaching the youngsters with information they need.

"The best way that youth and adolescents can learn is if they are able to participate within education. Participation is a big goal of education, which will really benefit our youth," suggested Pudthila.

Peer educators, with their "inside knowledge of the intended audience" and use of "appropriate language and terminology as well as non-verbal gestures", would be able to effectively reach out to youth on the sensitive issues of sexuality and HIV/AIDS, said Mahathir.

However, all the participants agreed that treating HIV/AIDS involved not just addressing the physical illness, but the societal one as well.

"Stigma is the biggest barrier to prevention in the world today. As long as we have stigma, we will never get rid of this epidemic," warned Mahathir.

Bopp-Du-Pont elaborated, "The main problem we are facing is ignorance. People are so ignorant about the topic that they don't want to talk about it. They prefer to sit down on their own stereotypes in the darkness than to stand up and learn."

Responding to a Pakistani delegate who said that social taboos made it impossible to talk about HIV/AIDS openly in his country, she countered: "Maybe you can start yourself talking about it and then with you will come others and then maybe one day, one, two, three years later, you'll be able to talk about it freely."
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