By Claudine Housen, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
A SIGNIFICANT number of parents are practically groping in the dark as it relates to issues of sex and sexuality and are ineffective in passing on such information to their children.
The situation is such that students ranging from 10-19 years of age in Montego Bay, St. James, are calling for special programmes to address the gap between parents and their children.
Speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum yesterday at the company's Montego Bay offices, the students explained that in many instances, they are more informed than their parents. As such, many children face significant problems putting into action what they do know because parents fear to discuss issues relating to sex and sexuality, especially HIV/AIDS.
"Most of the organisations are targeting the youths and now the youths know more than the adults," said Kaniel McKenzie, a representative of the Western Health Education Learning Programme (WESTHELP), based in Montego Bay
"We (the youth) are getting so much information right now that the adults are in limbo. Some questions come and they (the youth) say mummy what is this and she (does not know). In their time, most things that they would know about is gonorrhoea."
A CHANGED WORLD
Arguing that "we are in a changed world now," Karene Graham, a student of Mount Alvernia High School, noted that "parents are the ones who can help kids make the right decisions, but nobody talks to us about it (HIV and other STIs)."
The students called for the development and implementation of workshops on HIV/AIDS for parents, so that they can bridge the gap between the parent and child.
Jamaica's youth population is a highly vulnerable group to HIV/AIDS. Adolescent girls in the age group 10-19 years are two-and-a-half times at greater risk of becoming infected with HIV than boys in the same age group. In addition, there is early initiation of sex, with the average age being 14 for girls and 15 for boys. There is also low condom use, females having sex with older men, females having little access to condoms and a low perception of risk among 12-14 year-olds.
In apparent agreement with the students and the current situation among adolescents, Joan Harris, the behaviour change communication programme officer at the Type Five Health Centre in Montego Bay, said the need to educate parents is a problem that must be addressed quickly.
"Parents are ill-equipped," she said. "Some of them don't have time, some of them are indifferent and some of them just don't care less."
"There is still a lack of information to the parents," said Dr. Beverly Scott, child and family therapist and executive director/founder of Family and Parenting Centre, on East Street, Montego Bay.
