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Seychelles marks ‘ABCD Safer Sex Week’ |27 March 2015

This week Seychelles is marking the ‘ABCD Safer Sex Week’ and a host of activities have been planned for the occasion.

The ‘ABCD Safer Sex Week’ has been an annual event in Seychelles for some years now and it is commemorated during the first quarter of the year.

This year’s activities – ranging from writing competition to an awareness march and a youth forum – have been put together by the HIV Social and Behavioural Change and Communication (SBCC) Committee, Youth Action Movement (Yam), Seychelles National Youth Council (SNYC), Drug & Alcohol Council (Dac), Youth Health Centre (YHC) and the Aids programme.

The aim of the writing competition, launched by the Aids Prevention & Control Programme and the SBCC Committee, is to get young Seychellois to express their aspirations for Seychelles to attain the ‘Zero new HIV Infection, Zero Aids related Deaths and Zero Discrimination’ by 2030, in line with the ‘Close the Gap by 2030: Test and treat for HIV’ launched on World Aids Day 2014 by the National Aids Council, Seychelles.  Their aspirations will be published during the year and will let them tell us what 15 years of positive change will mean to them.

The awareness march, spearheaded by Yam of the Alliance of Solidarity for the Family (ASFF), will take place today at 6pm. The march will start at the Peace Park and end at the Espace building.

The theme selected by Yam this year is ‘Proteksyon pour mwan, Proteksyon pour ou’. With stops along the route to talk about Abstinence, Being Faithful, Condom use and Saying NO to Drugs, the march will end with sketches prepared by the youths themselves at the Espace building.

The youth forum organised by SNYC in collaboration with Dac and YHC for youths aged 15 to 35 years under the “ABCD safer sex” theme will take place from 10am to 12 noon tomorrow at the youth council, English River.

The world is placing major emphasis on targeting adolescents and youths in this continuous battle with HIV & Aids epidemic. While major advances have been made in almost every area of the response to HIV, progress for adolescents is falling behind.

“Aids is the leading cause of death among adolescents in Africa. Globally, two thirds of all new infections among adolescents were among adolescent girls. This is a moral injustice,” said Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS at the ALL IN# Campaign launched in Kenya earlier this year.

“We know what work; Safer sex practices, informed choices, positive behaviour change and the list goes on…Let our adolescents and youths be at the forefront of this fight. We strongly believe by including adolescents and youths in decision-making processes that have a direct effect on their lives, will be a catalyst for change. By engaging, mobilising and empowering adolescents as leaders and actors of social change we can address the challenges they face.”

Unicef executive director Anthony Lake said: “Children and young people should be the first to benefit from the progress we have made in ending the epidemic, not the last.

“We need to reach the adolescents we are missing and engage all young people in the effort to end adolescent Aids. In fact, we cannot achieve the goal of an Aids-free generation without them.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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