A letter from Pretty Sithole touches on so many important issues about love, sexually transmitted infections and HIV that I thought I should share it here with everyone.
The response may also provide some guidance to many of you who would like to do something to help your community to fight against HIV, but you are not sure where to start.
Pretty says:
Morning Damaria,
Please assist me with the info on how to educate our youth on STD and other infections that are contracted through sex.
I believe most of our youth don’t know how their bodies works and they are only driven by hormones and there myths that they assume is true that they use as precautions after having sex assuming they will prevent them from being infected.
Early this year I was shocked when my younger brother showed a screen saver of a woman who had vaginal warts which were covering her whole vagina. They said that she was infected by a guy (myth as well) who was sleeping around with girls to infect them with worms.
This opened my eyes it proved to me that most of our youth don’t know what types of STD’s are there and how they can be treated so they don’t get help and the have sex with other partners which leads them to a point where they test positive.
When they get to the point they are HIV+ and sick, they don’t want to get tested because there is another popular myth that says anti -retroviral drugs makes people more sick than they were and eventually kills them.
The battle of HIV/AIDS will not end if we don’t combat it in Middle and High Schools that is where you find a young boy/girl who is starting and trying to understand her/his body and don’t know how to control their hormones, it’s actually the cruel times because that is where everything falls apart.
I want to arrange with schools so that pupils to come on Saturday’s for a debate just to listen to what they think and give them proper advise and knowledge without judging them because they get aggressive when judged.
Please assist on this matter and advice on what you think will also work on this we need to educate these kids before it’s too late .
The OneLove web site responds:
Hi Pretty
Thank you for your letter.
As you are based in South Africa, I will also speak to Soul City about the possibility of providing you with resources that it developed to educate young people about their bodies, relationships, sex, sexually transmitted infections, HIV and AIDS. Many of these booklets also deal with the myths surrounding these issues.
[OneLove web site readers should note that all the OneLove regional partners also have resources that are available for readers in each country. This means that the resources we will refer you to are relevant for you, and may also be published in your home language.]
Online Resources
For now, here are some online resources that can help you to arrange a OneLove debate in your community so they can learn more about sex, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV:
The sceond haf of the booklet will give you more information on how to organise a public debate. The booklet was published by Soul City in South Africa. It is available in English, Afrikaans and Zulu.
This booklet will help young people think about the relationship choices that they make and how these choices affect the people they love.
Men, Women & HIV and AIDS [PDF format]
This booklet will also help you to deal with issues of gender in your community.
