BYFIELD

Gareth Manning, Gleaner Reporter

The Government is pumping millions of dollars into a renewed thrust to promote abstinence as a tool in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Since September last year, the authorities have been busy cementing ties with the Church and schools to further promote the importance of abstinence and faithfulness to one uninfected partner in an effort to reduce the spread and discrimination against HIV/AIDS.

Ten people die every week from AIDS, the most recent data show. There are 25,000 Jamaicans living with HIV/AIDS, two thirds of whom are not aware that they are infected. One third of that group, data show, are between the ages of 15 and 24.

Speaking with The Gleaner, Lovette Byfield, director of behaviour change communication in the Ministry of Health, said the aim of the church-intervention programme is to strengthen these messages while simultaneously breaking down deeply-embedded traditions within churches that taboo sex and grow the belief that practising Christians are not susceptible to the disease.

"You have some traditions that suggest that we don't have a problem and we are not at risk because our people are not having sex, and if they are having sex it is with one faithful partner," said Byfield.

She noted that there are many people in the church who were sexually active before they became Christians and could have settled down with the virus once they joined the congregation.

Housewives at higher risk

Many housewives are also among those growing rapidly at risk of contracting the virus, many of whom are members of the church congregation, Byfield pointed out.

"How can you take off the blinkers and realise that HIV/AIDS is a problem that is affecting everybody ... the Church needs to become more involved in the issue of HIV/AIDS, how to prevent it and how to provide support," she emphasised.

As such, the ministry has been training church leaders in some denominations with a hope to reinvigorate the message of abstinence. In September of last year, it started training leaders from the Catholic, Methodist and New Testament churches, as well as providing funding for the Baptist Pentecostal Churches for training.

One church that has taken up the mantle is the Bethel Baptist Church in Half-Way Tree, St. Andrew. The church is currently training 60 persons with a $2 million fund it received from the Ministry of Health.

Points to note

The programme is already making some obvious impact. There has been reported behaviour change of people willing to delay sex and feeling more able to say 'no', according to Lovette Byfield, director of behaviour change communication in the Ministry of Health. "So I believe there is some value in having this kind of intervention."

Youth coordinator, Kerrel McKay, said while the programme is to be piloted in a prominent Corporate Area high school, there will be a direct focus on schools in volatile communities where more young people are at risk.

"What we are trying to do is to promote abstinence as a viable option to you, because even though we have a large percentage of people who are sexually active, there is still a percentage not having sex," she said.