Youths lauded for advancing HIV/AIDS fight with aid of technology

Aug 02, 2019 News

The use of technology by youths was encouraged by the Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS [PANCAP], Mr. Derek Springer, as he delivered opening remarks at the Third Regional Meeting of Youth Leaders on Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV and AIDS in Port of Spain, Trinidad on Tuesday.

The participants of the meeting take time out for a photo opportunity

In his presentation, he recognised moves by youths to utilise digital platforms, including social media, to propagate their advocacy messages.
“I am proud when I see our youths utilising innovation to provoke responses on issues which they are passionate about,” stated the PANCAP Director as he added, “continue to use the technology available to remain visible”.
Springer reflected on the creation and relevance of the Caribbean Regional Youth Advocacy Framework [CRYAF] on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.
“After developing the CRYAF with input from youth, we recognised that it was important to build youth leaders’ advocacy skills so that they would be better prepared to advocate at the regional and national levels,” he recounted. This, he said, was done during the second meeting of youth leaders, and the approach was successful “as we now have a dynamic group of young people who are passionate and innovative in their approach to advocacy.”
He said too that PANCAP has been supporting youth leaders to advocate at the regional level, which included funding for youths to engage in regional forums with Ministers of Health and Education. PANCAP also supported youth leaders’ participation in the Joint Regional Dialogue with Faith Leaders, Parliamentarians, Civil Society Leaders and National AIDS Programme Managers.
A presentation by youth leaders advocating for access to sexual and reproductive health services was also positively received at the Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development [COHSOD].
The PANCAP Director praised the development of action plans by the youth body.
“I was impressed that youth leaders recognised the need to adapt their advocacy approach from the regional to the national platform,” Springer shared even as he noted, “I was also impressed by the reports of all the advocacy work implemented at the national level which called attention to issues concerning adolescents’ health and rights, gender equality, HIV prevention, actions to end gender-based violence and access to quality sexual reproductive health (SRH) services to meet the needs of adolescents and youth.”
The Trinidad forum was designed to facilitate the drafting of a roadmap with strategies for sustaining youth advocacy for the promotion of gender equality, HIV prevention, actions to end gender-based violence and access to quality sexual reproductive health [SRH] services to meet the needs of adolescents and youth regardless of disability, age, citizenship, gender identity and sexual orientation.
Springer, moreover, outlined the plethora of new knowledge, which will be gained by youths during the meeting and urged participants to utilise the new skills to collaborate and heighten sexual and reproductive health advocacy across the region.
Meanwhile, in her remarks, Ms. Renatta Langlais, Member of PANCAP Steering Committee on Youth Advocacy [PSCYA] commended participants for their consistent commitment to attending PANCAP youth forums and challenged them to utilise the new skills gained within the PSCYA and CARICOM Youth Ambassadors Corps. “We are here to share and learn from each other, we are here to meaningfully contribute to our healthy development as Caribbean youth,” Langlais said.
She highlighted that the task of achieving the three main priority areas set by the Caribbean Regional Youth Advocacy Framework in 2017 has been challenging. These included aligning the age of access to sexual and reproductive health services to the age of sexual consent, introducing Comprehensive Sexuality Education [CSE] to all Caribbean schools and advocating for Gender Neutral Laws and policies to be passed and implemented, especially those protecting the rights of victims of gender-based violence regardless of gender, orientation, race or status.
“Change does not come easily in our Caribbean Society,” Langlais said even as she went on to note, “It is difficult to show someone a new path when they are already set in their ways. We all want a healthy society, but many allow prejudice, stereotypes and stigma to block the road to progress.” However, she lauded the progress made by the youth body in formulating goals, indicators, and challenging barriers to SRH services by adolescents and youth.
“We must face obstacles of tradition, apathy, ignorance and lack of political will, head-on. The road we are travelling is very Caribbean, full of potholes of politics and bigotry; sometimes we fall in them, other times we manage to avoid them.”
She commended the PANCAP Director and the Partnership for consistent commitment to building the capacity of youth leaders in advocacy and urged participants to utilise collaboration as the key to fostering change and reaching policymakers with advocacy messages.
CARICOM Youth Ambassador [CYA], Ms. Terez Lord, in her remarks reminded participants of the significance of the CARICOM Youth Ambassador Corps [CYAC]. “We, in this room, represent the hopes and the dreams that were born in 1993 when the CYAC was formed. We hold the hopes of our Heads of Government who created this mechanism that was to be of the young people, for the young people and by the young people,” she said. She further highlighted that the CYAC was intended to be the catalyst to integrate and infuse the perspectives and solutions proposed by youth across the region into national, regional and international policy and practices. She also expressed gratitude to PANCAP for supporting youths to fulfil the mandate of the CYAC by building their capacity to advocate at all levels. According to her, “as a unit, we have the strength and we have prowess but only if we want to. In the international community, our presence is strong, and our voices are distinct.”
The CYA urged youths to utilise their collective skills to advocate for change.
“If collaboration is currency, then perhaps we as CARICOM can indeed have one common currency. We must be keen on ensuring CARICOM representation so that Heads of Government can recognise our presence, respect our intellect, accept our contributions and implement our recommendations,” she quipped.
She urged youths to utilise the forum to create innovative, inclusive and impactful recommendations.
“CARICOM Youth Ambassadors are a dynamic group of young people who are always prepared to disrupt old ways, mount a challenge to the status quo and contribute meaningfully and constructively to the sustainable development of our region,” added Lord.
Keynote speaker, Shaquille Knowles, Chairperson, Caribbean Regional Youth Council [CRYC] spoke highly of PANCAP for providing a space for young people to discuss issues affecting youth including universal health and SRH. He expressed his anticipation for the specific outcomes from the meeting which include the development of practical solutions capable of increasing youth’s access to quality health services, and a commitment to stand up against issues that have prevented adolescents’ access to quality universal health and SRH services.
He expressed his passion for advocating for SRH for adolescents and outlined the challenges affecting adolescents’ access to quality health services, which included the inability to afford health services and the stigma associated with receiving health services to treat specific illnesses. “Unfortunately, as the world continues to revolve without adequately addressing these key challenges within our critical demographic – more adolescents continue to grapple with the challenges with access to services that ‘healthy’ individuals take for granted,” the CRYC Chair observed.
He recounted an experience in which a family member died as a result of inadequate access to preventative health care services. “This loss of life could have been prevented with adequate resources to properly educate persons on the preventative measures to avoid being infected with HIV and measures to reduce the stigma of HIV within our communities and homes,” Knowles shared.
“I have witnessed continued efforts to reduce the prevalence rate of the HIV and other STIs in the Caribbean thanks to efforts from PANCAP, Ministries of Health and advocates,” the CRYC Chair said. However, according to him, “we must remain steadfast in transforming the lives of the world’s most critical population by continuing the work to reduce the detrimental effects of a lack of access to universal health services”.
He concluded by challenging participants to use innovation to advocate for adolescents’ access to SRH and to use their platforms to keep health for young people at the top of every policymaker’s agenda.