Youth sensitised against orgies on Valentine Day

Denu (V/R), Feb. 14, GNA - A campaign to sensitise the youth in particular against the misrepresentation about the Valentine Day celebration as a period for orgies and general indiscipline took place at Aflao on Monday.

Development Solutions Centre (DSC), an Accra based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in HIV/AIDS campaign organized the programme. About 3,000 free condoms and HIV literature were distributed to adults while the 3000 participating youth, mainly from second cycle schools, including Awudome Secondary, Three Town Secondary, Saint Paul, Anlo Secondary, Dzodze-Penyi Secondary and OLA Secondary in Ho were advised to stay away from sex until married.

The campaign under the theme: "Kick out HIV/AIDS, Say No to Casual Sex" was marked with a route march through the principal streets of Denu and Aflao ending at the Ghana-Togo border where they were addressed. The programme ended with a quiz testing the participating schools' knowledge on HIV/AIDS with Saint Paul's and Dzodze-Penyi Secondary Schools tying for the first position, with 95 per cent each. OLA Secondary came second with 94 per cent and Three Town coming third with 87 percent.

Addressing the students, Mr Charles Nornoo, Executive Director of DSC noted that the irresponsible and indiscipline posture that the Valentine day's celebration had taken was a recipe for faster HIV infection in the country.

He called for a reverse in the perception and the emotions about the day. Aflao was chosen for the exercise because of its peculiar position as a vulnerable border community, attracting numerous visitors daily. The Togolese country representative of DSC, Mr Kwasi Gbeblewoo Manyo noted that the fact that HIV infection continued to increase instead of abating despite the energies and resources put to the campaign so far showed that there was something lacking in the entire process. He said the greatest bottleneck to the campaign was the inability of people to change attitudes to sex, even among adults, who he accused for often capitalizing on the material needs and inexperience of the youth, mainly women for exploitation.

Mr Manyo said what was needed was re-education of society to know of their responsibilities for the needed change.

Dr Andrews Ayim, Ketu District Director of the Ghana Health Service advised all to change, saying the situation puts everyone at risk. He said out of 810 suspected patients tested at hospitals in Aflao and Denu areas last year, 226 or 27 per cent tested positive, while another 107 or 17 per cent of 627 patients tested in Dzodze areas also in the Ketu district tested positive. 14 Feb. 06 ATTENTION RECIPIENTS: ITEM 04 ENDS OUR THIRD TRANSMISSION