Delegación Regional- Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo, 10 de abril de 2002

Caribbean meeting - Empowering youth to fight HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination

by: Cristina Estrada

With the aim of strengthen the response in reducing the transmission of HIV among young people in the Caribbean more than 40 organisations have gathered for the first Caribbean HIV/AIDS Youth Network being held this week in the Dominican Republic. Red Cross representatives from National Societies from the region and two of the strongest organisations in the Caribbean - Dominican Republic based Profamilia and IDDI (Instituto Dominicano de Desarrollo Integral) - are also present .

Throughout all the region, there have been attempts to respond through youth initiatives and peer educators models to the epidemic. However, capacity and exposure to new and innovative methodologies have been very limited. "This is a very vulnerable population and hard to reach group", Ozzi Warwick, UNAIDS Programme Officer for the Caribbean said. "Youth projects need to be implemented and monitored by young people, with young people. If we want to be effective, they need to be involved in all stages of the decision making process", he added.

The idea of the meeting is to create a mechanism to share best practices between all organisations working with youth and HIV/AIDS, create a basic peer educators and a youth-friendly health service guide which could be used by all, moving away from individuality that involves youth and HIV/AIDS programmes in the region to a more integrated approach. It also aims to develop a regional strategy amongst Caribbean youth initiatives against stigma and discrimination.

The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, through its regional delegation in the Caribbean is co-organising this event. The Federation, during its last General Assembly, called for the scaling up of all HIV/AIDS programmes. "We need to work together and do a anti-stigma campaign at a regional level if we want to be effective. The CARAN (The Red Cross Caribbean AIDS Network) should be used as a platform for this", said Raul Gallegos, regional Health Delegate for the Caribbean.

"We don't have a medical vaccine, but, what we have today, is a social vaccine, that shows tolerance and solidarity with persons living with HIV/AIDS". Ruben del Prado added. The stigma of HIV/AIDS is seen as one of the most critical issues inhibiting changes in perception, attitudes and behaviour. "We need to concentrate in open, clear life skills training for youth, promotion of humanitarian values, access to good quality care and treatment for persons living with HIV/AIDS".

"Caribbean denial young people are sexual active. They need free and easy access to condoms, information and services" Joseph Robinson, of Jamaican based AIDS organisation, ASHE, said. Condom use among the sexually active is approximately between 10 and 15%. There is limited and in most cases no sex education in schools and in most countries there are no youth-friendly health services available for young people. "There is still a long way to go" added.

In this region, as in many other, myth and misconceptions about HIV/AIDS continue to be high. Poverty, social exclusion, discrimination, human rights violation, denial and lack of education, fuel the spread of the infection.

This is the first time a meeting of this kind is taking place in the Caribbean region, which, with an estimated 600,000 people infected, has the world's second highest prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS. More than 50 % of which, don't know their status.

Of these 600,000, almost 25% live in the Dominican Republic and more than 40% in Haiti, where AIDS is the leading cause of death. In both countries, currently, more than 60% of the deaths are persons age between 25 and 44. However, as the rest of the world, infection trends in the region show that half of the new infections are of young persons between 14 and 24. Mortality patterns are changing. It's is becoming to be a development threat, not only a health issue. "We need to use the force of youth to make a difference" added Ruben del Prado.