Inter Press Service - September 23, 2002
Peter Richards

It is a belief that is being carried to young people across the Caribbean, where, faced with an AIDS epidemic, the region is implementing a number of initiatives to stop the HIV virus from spreading.

Last month, another group of young Caribbeans meeting in Surinam for 10 days adopted the 'Declaration of Paramaribo', urging their government leaders to ensure that youth play a role in telling their peers about the disease.

The group of 28, equally divided among boys and girls, reminded their leaders that as representatives of their respective national youth organisations they had an "obligation" to the region's young. There were "high expectations", the declaration said, that they would help their contemporaries fulfil dreams of a better future.

The youth delegates, who met under the banner 'Caribbean Youth Ambassadors', also publicly endorsed the regional strategy against HIV/AIDS by signing the 'Pan Caribbean Partnership Commitment', a strategy of the region's leaders, regional and international civil society groups and aid agencies.

The strategy focuses on care and treatment for people living with AIDS, prevention and human rights, and reducing the stigma that people living with HIV/AIDS face throughout the region.

"These three elements all have implications for Caribbean youth who, as a group, are the most highly vulnerable to the disease," the Youth Ambassadors observed.

Organisers of the Turks and Caicos workshop said in a statement, "It has always been obvious that the youth listen to each other. Whether it is hair, fashion, music or sex, the youth speak to each other."

"To get through to the young, we must teach the young, to reach the young.".

In July, a 15-year-old secondary school participant at a regional 'Young Leaders Programme' funded by a Trinidad-based bank, warned that because of "the existence of cultural silence", young people "feel they do not have any trustworthy person to talk to about sexuality and HIV/AIDS".

"While a number of institutional structures and services exist for young people, few have gained their trust and confidence," added Ranjana Rambachan.

She appealed to the region's governments to ensure that education about HIV/AIDS starts at the primary school-level, where the "minds of children are most impressionable".

Young people resent health care workers, who tend to "lecture" rather than counsel young people, said Rambachan. "There are occasions when adolescents are told they are too young to have sex and they should come with their parents to receive healthcare."

Maria Dillon-Remy, medical director at the Scarborough Hospital in Tobago, shares the exasperation. She said a culture of silence among Tobagonians has contributed to the increase in HIV/AIDS cases and that such a culture must be broken "so young people could communicate on HIV/AIDS issues".

Referring to a report titled, The Sexual Health Needs of Youth in Tobago, Dillon-Remy said the lack of confidentiality among health care workers is a major factor why young people are not informed. The report showed that 31.8 percent of Tobago schoolchildren between the ages of 10 and 14 were sexually active, 35.7 percent in the 15-19 year old category.

Caribbean figures show that the average age of the first sexual experience was 14 years, with one in 15 persons having their first sexual experience before the age of 10. The average age of first time sex for girls was 15 years while boys had their first encounter at 13.

The new level of awareness among the youth is a result of the global estimates that every minute, six young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are infected with HIV, says Trinidad and Tobago's Social Development Minister Pennelope Beckles.

Girls are particularly hard-hit, she adds. "The HIV/AIDS situation as it pertains to our 15-19 age group is of particular concern to me given that evidence suggests the ratio (of infection) is five girls to each boy in this age group."

The Bahamas has been at the forefront of the fight to counter HIV/AIDS in the region. It was the first to engage youth organisations in its national strategic plan document, 'The Commonwealth of the Bahamas HIV/AIDS Programme - A Model for Success'.

Other countries in the region are set to follow. Trinidad and Tobago says it is formulating a National Plan of Action for Children, which includes HIV/AIDS education. Grenada announced at the end of August that it is developing new strategies to deal with HIV/AIDS among its young population.

But a lack of money is hampering new initiatives.

"Current economic circumstances constrain the ability of our countries to expand our capacity, operationalise our facilities and to procure the drugs and other technologies necessary to deal comprehensively with the HIV/AIDS crisis and its effects on our societies," says Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Deputy Secretary-General Carla Barnett.

The Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat and the Clinton Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in August to mobilise resources for anti-HIV/AIDS efforts. The MOU recognises, "HIV/AIDS represents the single most important challenge to well-being and development in the Caribbean region." (END/IPS/HE/HD/PIR/AN/ML/02) .

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