Development & Aid, Headlines, Health, Latin America & the Caribbean, Population

RIGHTS: Handing Out Condoms to Students Causes Uproar in Trinidad

Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, Jun 3 2003 (IPS) - On two occasions last month, Svenn Miki Grant, the community outreach co-ordinator of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) stood outside a secondary school and the main library in the city and handed out condoms and sex education literature to school children.

His action, he said, was borne of out frustration at the failure of the authorities to deal with the issue of sexual education, particularly after signing so many United Nations declarations on the matter.

”It is clear that these politicians and other self-acclaimed authorities really don’t care much about youth, and by extension, the general population,” said Grant, who is also a member of the groups Advocates for Youth Sexuality and Reproductive Health Rights.

In recent years, he says, the Trinidad and Tobago government has produced a number of studies or policies ranging from a ”Five-Year National Strategic Plan” to address HIV/AIDS to the ”Children’s Authority Act”.

”Still we await for the plans to move forward,” Grant said in an interview. ”It is widely accepted that young people have a right to sex education, partly because it is a means by which they are helped to protect themselves against abuse, exploitation, unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS.”

But his actions have opened a can of worms here. Radio and television talk shows have been inundated with calls from passionate listeners and viewers, largely divided on the issue, while letters to newspapers have been asking questions such as, "Would you send your daughter to a condom school?”

”In a society that only reacts to explosive situations, it is no wonder that it took Miki Grant handing out condoms to bring a national response to the critical issue of sex education,” wrote one reader, Lisa Ghany.

The issue has also raised the question of whether Grant had the right to give condoms to children who are legally too young to have sex. Grant has said that he will do it again, to counter the government’s ”sex education”, which does not discuss sexual activities.

He insists that by handing out the materials he is, ”developing young people’s skills so that they make choices about their behaviour and feel confident about acting on these choices”.

Wendy Fitzwilliam, the winner of the 1998 Miss Universe pageant who has been involved with the Cyril Ross home for children with HIV/AIDS here, says most of the people objecting to what Grant did are over the age of 40 and out of touch.

”I want to see safe sex messages at fetes on napkins. I want it on coasters so when you lift your beer you see the message. I want that when you go to use the bathroom you see safe sex messages and a condom machine,” she says.

”We need to educate our children and not pretend everything is all right when it’s not. Look at what our children are being exposed to,” adds Fitzwilliam.

Grant has gained support from the Family Planning Association of Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT), which called for ”calm, rational discourse and decision-making (instead of) the hysteria that is threatening to reduce the vitally important issues of child and adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights to a uni-dimensional and pointless debate on condom use”.

FPATT president Jacqueline Sharpe says her organisation is ”committed to the establishment and provision of quality sexual and reproductive health services for young people”.

It is ”a matter of urgent national importance” that much more be done to improve information and sexual education and other programmes for teenagers, she added.

”We strongly advocate the immediate introduction of health and family life education, including sex education, in all schools at all levels,” said Sharpe, urging that society recognise the need for information, education and services, privacy, confidentiality, respect and informed consent, in conformity with U.N. conventions on children’s and women’s rights.

Research done by FPATT in collaboration with the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) and the German Technical Corporation (GTZ) found that the average age for first sexual intercourse in Trinidad and Tobago was 14 years and that 75 per cent of the youth population had sex by age 16.

The Summary of Research Findings, based on a 2002 Rapid Assessment Study conducted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Caribbean office here, found that a significant number of boys and girls attending schools in the city were engaged in commercial sex activities.

Stung by the uproar that followed Grant’s initiative, the Ministry of Health took out full-page newspaper advertisements that said social issues, including human sexuality were being taught through a ”comprehensive life-skills-based Health and Family Life Education curriculum and the Schools Guidance Programme”.

”We are cognisant of the fact that it is only through the acquisition of appropriate attitudes, skills and values that children and youth will be empowered to make decisions that promote their sexual well-being. The Ministry recognises that the issue of sexuality and child development is a very complex matter in the context of our multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic society,” said the ad.

The non-governmental organisation (NGO) Citizens for a Better Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) said it agreed with the government that condoms should be distributed only with the consent of parents and guardians.

”Unrestricted condom distribution gives young children the message that we support their sexuality as long as they do it safely,” CBTT President Harrack Balramsingh said.

”In the war on drugs, children are encouraged to say ‘no’, yet in the war on sexually transmitted diseases, students are taught to say ‘yes’, as long as they use a condom,” he added.

The National Parent-Teachers Association said that while it supports ”structured sex education”, it opposes the distribution of contraceptives.

”We are totally against anyone going to our schools; we believe this is a bad precedent to set and we want the government to do something about it,” NPTA president Zena Ramatali said.

Religious groups and the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association have also condemned giving out condoms, warning that it only promotes ”illicit or unlawful sex”.

But a study published in the United States last month said that teenagers at high schools where condoms were available were no more likely to have sex than other teens. The findings, published in the ‘American Journal of Public Health’, examined high schools in Massachusetts, where the state Department of Education encouraged schools to develop condom programmes.