World AIDS Day: Time to Reflect

As another year passes there must be a more determined effort for us to reduce and aim to eliminate the incidences of new HIV/AIDS cases in Barbados. One obvious strategy is to increase the active involvement of young people in the fight against AIDS for the battle to be more effective than it is. Presently there is no doubt that there is some involvement but that involvement must deepen.

Reference to youth in recent studies focus on the age range 9-29 years old. This age range captures the youth from the time they are know to become sexually active to the time they start to transition to more experienced adults; the most vulnerable period of their lifetime.

Deeper involvement must mean participation in research; making inputs into analysis; planning and executing programmes and projects and; monitoring and evaluating the effects of these programmes.

There is an old Chinese saying that goes "tell me and I'll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand." Too often participation stops at letting the "youth" air their views. They don't seem to be trusted past this by the older adults who put their own "spin" on what the solutions should be. The result is that their very words are used against them rather than to help them.

BANGO therefore welcomes the creation of a National HIV/AIDS Youth Commission (NHAYC) to coordinate the efforts of the HIV/AIDS awareness clubs throughout the schools, which were established out of the Children's Conference on HIV/AIDS held earlier this year.

There are benefits to gain from this kind of youth organisation. First there is the opportunity for the youth to orchestrate their own programmes. It is also an opportunity for the youth to reach consensus among themselves and bring creativity and youthful energy to bear on the fight against HIV/AIDS.

This also gives the youth a "hands on" process for determining strategies that will attract the attention of their peers; something that we have failed to do so far. Thus far, it is reasonable to say that we have failed to reach the youth given that the statistics are rising.

For some time now BANGO has been lobbying for the training of a core group of Civil Society personnel who can be made available to groups and organisations. So far most of the training went to professionals, Civil Servants and others out of easy reach of civil society organisations, especially the grassroots organisations.

BANGO's prayers were answered when the opportunity came 2 nd - 5 th of November 2004. The UNAIDS in colllabaration with Cicatelli Associates, Pro Sure GTZ and the National HIV/AIDS Commission of Barbados held a Regional Skills Building Workshop for civil society organizations working in the area of HIV/AIDS at Grand Barbados.

The workshop was excellent and successful but we regret that Barbados only had three places and hence more youth could not be trained. However, out of a group of about 40 to cover the region, there were too few youth below 25 years of age.

The workshop covered skills in Monitoring, Planning, Coalition Building , Problem Solving/Conflict Management, Negotiation, and Management. It was an interactive session with more practical than theory stressing the importance of practicing skills as oppose to just studying them.

In the coming year, the graduates of this course have committed themselves to returning to their homelands and spreading the knowledge they gained. It will be no different for Barbados because we are getting into gear to take this fight to another level.

As the battle continues let us look forward to the brighter days ahead and not the dark gloomy clouds that only seem to be hovering. We therefore call on every Barbadian to take stock of themselves and make a personal pledge to play their part on World AIDS Day, December 1 st 2004 , to do something, ever so little, about curtailing the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

Corey Lane
Assistant Secretary General - BANGO
coreylane@bango.org.bb