Yabra youths educate peers on HIV prevention

Since its establishment, the Community Policing Unit in Yarborough has been actively engaging youths in the area in an effort to prevent crime and violence. But this week, the unit was trying to prevent another social issue of equal importance to life, HIV/AIDS. Douglas Hyde, program Coordinator for the Community Policing Unit, says that having youths talk to their peers about preventing the STI, is a strategy that is already having successful results.

Douglas Hyde, Program Coord., Community Policing Unit
“Today is one of the activity that we’re carried out fort eh Community Policing Unit. Actually, what we’ve done is hired seven of these peer educators who took their training couple months ago through the Belize Red Cross and Together We Can project and now these young persons collect a weekly stipend and are going community to community reaching young people and other community members talking to them about the effects and affects of HIV and Aids.”

Shirley Eagan, Peer Educator, Community Policing Unit
“Today we have a satellite table that we are giving out and showing the community around our Yabra area right. And this satellite table is basically about different topics, like for instance we have here ten reasons not to be a teenaged parent. It’s not only basing on HIV and AIDS because as a peer educator you have different branches that we could go about and educating people. You have building self esteem, young people sometimes they have a low self esteem. This little book that I have in my hand is Some Facts About HIV and AIDS. It’s a good book. I encourage people to open it. You can get it at Alliance Against AIDS. This book has in all about the facts about HIV and AIDS and how to protect yourself and so forth.”

Jose Sanchez
“Are you getting a good response from young people?”

Shirley Eagan
“Yes, we are. We are getting a good response from them because the questions they ask and you can see that yes, they are learning something. Like I was saying just a little while ago, there were two young ladies who came and one did not know how a female condom looks and fi my job I like when dehn noh know because ih give we wah sense ah satisfaction weh I could teach. So we give wah simple demonstration of how the female condom should be used properly. So, yeah.”

Jose Sanchez
“You have been saving some lives.”

Shirley Eagan
“Yeah, many lives.”

Hyde says the United Nations Population Fund, U.N.F.P.A., has provided the finances to hire youths around the country for the peer education program.