Louisa Gayle
- RUDOLPH BROWN/Chief Photographer
FACED WITH socio-economic pressures, young girls, especially in inner-city communities are being forced to become breadwinners for their families by engaging in sexual relationships with older men.
This was one of many issues explored Tuesday by several young persons from inner-city schools in Kingston and St. Catherine at a Gleaner Editor's Forum held at the newspaper company's North Street offices, central Kingston.
Louisa Gayle, a student at Children First in Spanish Town said, "for school girls, to talk to a guy in the same age group, dem nuh inna dat because dem seh, school boys bring lunch money, while big man bring salary."
She was responding to the question, "What can be done to stop young girls from having sexual relationships with older men?" She explained, "lunch money is a little bitty (small) thing, but dem want salary, they want big money."
Louisa, however, pointed out that some young girls are forced into the situation because in some instances parents are unable to provide for them. "You have parents who because they can't help their child financially, they tell them to go and be with older guys so that they can help to support them," she said.
Richard Forrester, from Red Cross said the situation was real. "I know personally of a girl it happened to. The older guys use the young girl as a sex object or sex toy," he said.
Another student said that in her community (in rural Jamaica) many of the girls engaged in sexual practices with older men from other countries in exchange for money.
According to the Ministry of Health, adolescent females in the age group 10- 19 years were two and half times at higher risk of HIV infection respectively than boys of the same age group. The ministry attributes the findings to social factors whereby young girls are having sexual relations with HIV infected older men.
Tuesday's forum at The Gleaner was precursor to a youth conference to be held on Friday at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston. Some 400 adolescents from schools and clubs islandwide will meet to discuss issues related to HIV/AIDS and sexuality. The youth confab is sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in association with The Gleaner Company, the National AIDS Committee, the Ministry of Health, the Jamaica Red Cross and the National Youth Development Corporation.
