We've heard from the technocrats and health professionals about the solution to Belize's HIV/Aids problem. But is all that talk working? Well, the numbers show that the problem is only getting worse. But now, new approach coordinated by the Red Cross and funded by UNICEF is taking the message of HIV/Aids straight to the streets. Here's how.
Keith SwiftReporting,
Sitting under the banner "Together We Can" are the newest foot soldiers in Belize's battle against HIV and Aids. For the next three days these youths from the city's south side are participating in the Red Cross' HIV peer education program. And national trainer Sherie Murillo says these youths may be the best offensive in the battle against Aids.
Sherie Murillo, Red Cross National Trainer
“I just believe that the youths out there in the community would rather listen to their friends rather than listen to maybe a 40 year old person. They would love to play these games and activities with their friends rather than being in a classroom setting where you have obligations to certain things.”
And the program just might work because in-training instructors like Keith Lemoth from Youth for the Future and Keisha Murillo from Port Loyola both say they are ready to head back into their enclave with the knowledge about HIV and Aids. And for Keisha it’s very important because she says her peers hunger for more info on HIV and Aids.
Keisha Murillo, Trainee
“Some of my friends feel like they don’t have the right to talk about their feelings and some of them don’t have good education. And then the schools don’t teach more about HIV and AIDS.”
Keith Lemoth, Trainee
“I think this training will leave me with one a personal experience of how to address certain youths that might come to you seeking assistance and also the knowledge I can gain will also help prepare my personal children if I have any as to how they can go about to live a more safer life.”
“They have several activities planned out for us but immediately we are going to basically try to work with at risk youths in the community.”
But before they get back into their communities, these peer educators will have to finish the training.
Sherie Murillo, Red Cross National Trainer
“We’re conducting a training workshop training individuals to be certified instructor trainers. These individuals are going to be trained for three days. They will have to do a teach back assessment and also a post test for them to be certified as a instructor trainer. After the three day training they will train a set of peer educator who range in age from 14 to 19 from the South side of Belize City. These peer educators will have to go out into the south side and train.”
And as the training continues the organizers hope that together youths can prevent the HIV pandemic.
The training for these instructors ends on Wednesday. A team of peer educators will be trained from Thursday through to Saturday. The "Together We Can” initiative was introduced in Belize in January. For a comparative analysis it has been doing well in Jamaica for the past 10 years.