"Has AIDS gone away?" Eve for Life responds on TVJ interview

E-Mail: info@eveforlife.org
Website: www.eveforlife.org
Twitter: EveforLife

Smile Jamaica morning television program interviewed Ms. Joy Crawford who is a founder and Director for Eve For Life another non governmental organization that targets women and children. She was formerly a part of Jamaica AIDS Support for Life and the Ministry of Health involved in the response to the epidemic over these many years.

Host Simon Crosskill at least was more serious this morning in the interview as sometimes his satire has been deemed cold sometimes he started off by asking "Has AIDS gone away?" a poignant question indeed seeing the prevention and condom use messages seemed to have slowed down and he hinted to the lack of images and stories about HIV positive persons who need to tell their stories, a point touched on further during the discourse.

Some points during the exchange with Simon included:

• Eve For Life is one of the newest response mechanisms to the HIV epidemic fight looking at needs with psycho social support with persons involved with over 15 years experience.

• Women are still the more vulnerable even though they are accessing care.

• The "I'm Alive Club" was implemented recently as part of new interventions to deal with the issues affecting women with HIV, it was designed for young women who are teen mothers a group that has not had any major sustained programs. EFL has been able to secure funding from the US Ambassador's Fund and CITA the Caribbean Treatment Action Group.

• More advocacy is needed HIV is still very much real.

• 1.7% of the population are now infected and vulnerable populations that were low on the radar have now seen increases in infection rates.

• The average teenager when it comes to sex especially unprotected sex their primary concern is still pregnancy not Sexually Transmitted Infections or HIV, pregnancy can be managed by contraception methods however this population have a disconnect that unprotected sex can result in contracting HIV.

• Antiretrovirals in Jamaica are free presently to most but the cost for other drugs and treatment for opportunistic infections is another matter, there are other challenges such as costs for antibiotics, improper adherence or lack of rigid compliance in following prescribed instructions, not eating properly, social support or lack thereof.

• Young people are having the most sex, not necessarily the best sex over 50% of infected persons are women with females between the ages of 15 -25 being the most vulnerable.

• At least 32,000 persons in Jamaica are assumed to be HIV positive with nearly half not aware of their status.

• EFL works with small groups for about eighteen months with interventions dealing with issues such as teenage impact that of social networking, the promiscuity problems and frivolity in that population with the emphasis on sex then our young folks are at risk.

• There is a lack of life skills and visual examples of PLWHAs, HIV positive individuals telling their stories, Simon Crosskill spoke to the need for visual evidence of persons healthy looking or not to be presented speaking about their own experiences first hand. "..... If we have a visual image of what HIV/AIDS looks like you are more likely to ... if we are to see it at its worse .... one might recoil."

• Ms Crawford responded by highlighting the monthly "Dear Eve" columns in the Jamaica Observer newspaper there will be testimonials from HIVers.

The Interview concluded.

Peace and tolerance

H