WOMEN between 15 and 24 with HIV/AIDS outnumber men seven-to-one in this country.

The Deputy Technical Director of the National AIDS Co-ordination Committee, Patricia Belmar revealed this at a function in California, Central Trinidad recently.

She said there has been a 50 per cent decrease in AIDS-related deaths but TnT still carries one of the highest mortality rates in the Caribbean.

With the Carnival season in full swing, the YMCA has once again taken the challenge to educate the young population about safe sex.

AVA RAMPERSAD and
JENNIFER QUINLAN.

The programme, dubbed The S Word, is a continuation of last year’s Sexposition/What’s Your Position campaign.

The “S”, the concept of which was developed by YMCA Co-ordinator, Glee Job, represents words like sacred, sinful, stimulation, sensible, etc.

According to Jennifer Quinlan, people can identify with the ‘S’ Word because of their own perception of sex.

Quinlan is an HIV/AIDS Co-ordinator who worked in Namibia, Africa, after graduating from Toronto University in Canada. She is in Trinidad for six months working with the YMCA as a Co-ordinator.

In a presentation at the Fernandes Compound, Laventille, explicit photographs of sexual behaviour by young people in fetes were displayed.

As part of the campaign, YMCA has been distributing condoms in fetes to partygoers, who sometimes refuse it because it is not their brand.

This move has been heavily criticised by the Catholic Commission.

However, YMCA Director Svenn Grant said his problem with the church is “the way it judges people”.

“The fact is,” he lamented, “people are having sex outside of marriage and YMCA’s responsibility is to curb the spread of HIV\AIDS in the country.”