ROSE HALL St James - Officials at the St James Health department Monday pointed to a dilemma involving the government's refusal to sanction the distribution of condoms in the island's high schools, despite statistics indicating the need to include this measure as part of a multi-pronged approach to curbing the spread of the deadly HIV/AIDS virus.

According to Melanie Walcott, Behaviour Change Communications officer attached to the St James Health Department, the government's stance, as communicated to her, could - in years to come - place Jamaica in the same position as Sub-Saharan Africa which has the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the world followed by the Caribbean region.

The ever-controversial issue came up during a workshop being put on by the department for close to a hundred students from the island's western high schools at the Holiday Inn Sunspree resort.

Entitled 'Stop AIDS; Keep the promise through leadership', the workshop, which ended yesterday, hopes the participating students who were selected on the basis of their perceived leadership qualities will come up with action plans to raise awareness among their peers concerning the best way to go about curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Pointing out the need for condom vending machines to be placed in schools to help curb the spread of the disease, Walcott invited the students to get proactive on the issue with an aim to engaging further public debate.

"We are told that the government stance is no distribution of condoms in schools, but you are leaders in your own right. these are the things that we would love to see the schools lobbying for...stage a demonstration collectively as a group and ask for condoms to be distributed in schools and then you will push the hands of the powers that be so there is something you can do," she said.

St James, widely acknowledged as the island's tourist capital, has constantly distinguished itself as one of the country's geographical locations that has the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS cases.

Monday, when a student pointed to the need for condom distribution as one of many approaches that could be adopted to curb the epidemic, the response was mixed. Some participants called for the volume of the abstinence campaign to be raised instead while others pointed out that it was already deafening.

".We like to deal with the facts. persons who are in their teen years in school have HIV, we are seeing high rates of teenage pregnancy, we are seeing high rates of STI's like herpes, gonnorrohea and syphilis that means teens are having sex. and they are having unprotected sex. We go to schools, we have peer education in schools, we have spent millions of dollars on abstinence campaigns in schools, to have a workshop like this it costs a lot of money.we try to provide pamphlets, name it we have tried it.now if all of that isn't working then we realise the next best thing would be to empower these persons that listen if you need to have sex you need to have sex but you need to at least do it safely," Walcott said.

".So we are advocating for the use of condoms in schools. However the powers that be. (the legislature), the Minstry of Education, the church, the parents who say 'my daughter is a virgin'.. these are the struggles we face. a health worker or nurse or a teacher could be charged with aiding and abetting if he or she were to be seen distributing condoms to a minor because a monor is not supposed to be having sex," she addded.

Regional Behaviour Change Communications Officer, Christopher Fogo also made the point.

"It's not a one-pronged message. We are giving the message for abstinence and those who are not abstaining," he pointed out in response to some of concerns.

Salomie Evering, Deputy Chief Education Officer, while acknowledging the sensitivity of the issue, confirmed that the ministry's current stance made the distribution of condoms in schools a no-no.

"We have to be careful that we don't send a double message by saying don't have sex on the one hand, but if you are having it use a condom. If students are engaged in sexual activity and this is known, it is to be reported to the Child Development Agency and it becomes a case for the police," she said.

She added that "currently the health and family life curriculum speaks to contraception and the various methods of contraception are taught in schools."

"Demonstrations on how to use the condoms are given.but just because you may teach about the good or bad that guns may do in schools doesn't mean you should distribute them," she emphasised.

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