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(from Orain, one of our youth bloggers from Jamaica)
i had the opportunity to attend an international summit the one voice summit in washington DC in march and boy was it an eye opener. as you heard the name of the summit is the one voice summit and im sure i wasnt the only person there who didnt fully, note i said fully understand the meaning of the summit however after presenting last at the opening ceremony i was fully clear on what is wats about..... but enough of the summit let me speak to the information i learnt at the summit and can i tell you it was some distrubing and alarming information. first let me say for all those americans who will read this " your abstinence only programme DOES NOT WORK AGAIN I SAY IT DOES NOT WORK!!!!!!!" i heard some startling information like teens in florida think they can bathe in bleach to kill gonorrhea like what the hell. or worst one presenter who stated that washington D.C which let me say is not a state would be in the top ten countries if was a country for HIV/AIDS. no man this is serious after talking to a friend who will be in washington for the holiday he said he doesnt want to go because he heard on the news that washington is being compared to unganda re HIV/AIDS concentartion. no again i ask isnt that awful.
from the summit i was informed that with this abstinence only programme teens are told that sex after marriage is the only and safe sex there is and it has to be between a man and a woman now im not advocating for anyone here but what about those groups in society that have legalise marriages. and why is it that these groups or persons in these groups are left to feel out of place as their sexual orientation is not recognised. now a friend from the summit told me that she went to a catholic high school and she was eductaed that women should not wear any skimpy clothes as this is an invite to men for sex...lol im sorry i know its serious but what are these people really telling our youth. there were numerous issues discussed at the sumitmit
washington having a high concentration of HIV/AIDS gay black men among other stuff and i look at and i say US pull up ypur socks. another participant said to me that they cannot have a condom machine on campus now ppl this is a university campus not high school these are people who are over 18 yrs old who can consent to sex so why not have a machine that help in the reduction all these epidemics. im still try to understand. people i implore you to support the one billion dollar ask by advocates for youth as get rid of this senseless programmes as we the caribbean look to you for help and as an example.
vanessaaishacoleman
| 4/21/09 11:35 PM
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