STUDENTS in need of contraceptives and/or information about sex and sexually transmitted diseases must be treated with respect, if the fight against HIV/AIDS, for example, is to be won.

This is according to Novia Condell, the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF’s) programmes specialist for children and HIV/AIDS. Children, she said, are often not treated with the respect due to them when they go to access information and/or condoms at some of the existing health facilities across Jamaica.

“We need to find the best, most comfortable place for our adolescents who are sexually active to be able to protect themselves. In that vein, UNICEF has been providing support since 2006 to the Bashy Bus Mobile HIV Prevention Service for adolescents, run by Children First. So far, our baseline and evaluation data are telling us that young people want the services, but they want them to be delivered to them in a manner that is respectful of them and preserves their dignity,” Condell told Career & Education.

“So if young people are telling us that when they go to the pharmacies and the health centres, they are not treated with respect, then we have a problem because that then becomes an obstacle to access and for us here at UNICEF and for the majority of our partners, this is the crux of the matter. Wherever the children find friendly services, that is where they will go,” she added.

Without children friendly facilities, Condell insisted, the battle could be lost. And it is not just about condoms and where they are made available; it is also about giving youths the skills to say ‘no’ to sex.

According to the 2005 Youth Risk and Resiliency Behaviour Survey of the Ministry of Health, which had a sample size of 3,003 in-school adolescents, most adolescents agreed to their first sexual encounter. But 9.2 per cent of boys and 24 per cent of girls said they were forced to their first time, while 8.5 per cent of boys and 10.6 per cent of girls did not agree but said nothing.

“That tells you that they did not have the skill to refuse,” noted Condell.

It is for this reason, she said, that UNICEF is supporting the rolling out of the health and family life education initiative that is being undertaken in four thematic areas, notably:

* Sex and sexual health;

* Self and interpersonal relationships;

* Eating and fitness; and

* Managing the environment.

“A very important part of the sex and sexual health theme is life skills, including refusal skills, negotiation skills and the skills to negotiate sex,” Condell said.