Jamaica AIDS Support for Life pushes for condom use during Safer Sex Week
JAMAICA AIDS Support for Life (JASL) has ramped up activities to mark Safer Sex Week in a bid to encourage more persons to use condoms and engage in safer sex practices year-round, in particular, during this time of year.
Observed during the week of February 11-17, Safer Sex Week eclipses Condom Day and Valentine’s Day, which were both celebrated on Wednesday. The day is also in recognition of the tendency by some individuals to engage in risky sexual behaviours, including refusing to use a condom, practices that make them vulnerable for HIV and other STIs.
In a 2012 Knowledge and Activities Survey, 46.9 per cent of persons surveyed said that they did not use a condom when engaging in sexual intercourse with their significant other as they “love” and “trust” their partners.
SENSITISATION SESSION
JASL’s Safer Sex Week activities, which kicked off on Sunday with a health fair at the Negril Convention Centre, moved into high gear on Monday with condom demonstrations, sensitisation sessions, HIV testing, and a wealth of information on safer sex practices for students and faculty at the Montego Bay Community Centre.
In St Ann, the intervention team took to the streets with their test kits for ‘ Walk, Talk and Test’, engaging persons and providing on-the-spot HIV and syphilis tests to residents of St Ann’s Bay and its environs.
JASL, which will wrap up its week of activities with a mass testing in Mandela Park in HalfWay Tree today, and in Lucea, Hanover, on Saturday, is encouraging persons to get tested in order to know their HIV status as the ultimate demonstration of their love for their partners.
Approximately 30,000 Jamaicans are living with HIV, however, about 15 per cent of those infected do not know that they are carrying the virus.
Jamaica AIDS Support for Life provides a wide range of HIV and AIDS-related support services, free of cost, through its chapters in Kingston, St Ann’s Bay, and Montego Bay.
Activities for this year’s Safer Sex Week are funded by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.