The Minister of Education is reported to have said (Trinidad Newsday, June 25, 2006) that sex education and the issue of condoms were “on the agenda for further discussion”, and that the Ministry of Education would “have to decide how to deal with” sexually active students.

As the Honourable Minister reflects on these matters, we wish to invite her to consider the following:
Proponents of condom use insist that condoms have “nearly 100 percent effectiveness when used correctly and consistently.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA, in commenting on the effectiveness of condoms in protecting against HIV/AIDS, has reported a failure rate as high as 15%. As such, policies that rely on condoms to prevent AIDS condemn the users to a sentence of “when” rather than “if” they will contract the disease.

According to the Lancet Medical Journal in the UK, the distribution of condoms in conjunction with promotion of the “safe sex” message actually encourages sexual activity among teenagers, and helps the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Abstinence, delaying sexual initiation, mutual faithfulness, faithfulness within marriage and reduction of sexual partners have been key factors whenever successes have been recorded in reducing the incidence of HIV/AIDS infection.

Some governments around the world, e.g. Zambia, are waking up to the dangers of promoting condom use among adolescents, and have banned condom distribution in schools.

The First Ladies of Uganda and Kenya have been courageous enough to insist on the abstinence/faithfulness message for young people and have openly declared that they do not support promotion of condom use.

We recognise that a major challenge facing the nation today is the disappearance of family values, a concern to which the Minister of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs alluded in her Emancipation Day address.

In the process of addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS prevention, we need to ensure that we do not undermine our efforts to support family life by encouraging sexual laxity.

Surely it is inconsistent to promote family values and, wittingly or unwittingly, unbridled sexual freedom among youth (through the promotion of condom use), at the same time.

It should be pointed out that, with or without HIV/AIDS, for 2000 years the Catholic Church has emphasised that chastity, premarital abstinence and marital fidelity constitute authentic expressions of human sexuality. We urge that these truths be respected in any programme to combat HIV/AIDS and STDs.

If we succumb to the international pressure to put condoms in our schools, in the interest of encouraging “behaviour change” among adolescents, when what is meant is “use a condom whenever you engage in pre-marital sex”, we run the risk of exposing them to death and the destruction of their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual  health. Do we really want to teach them that for immediate sexual gratification it  is worth risking their lives?

In the campaign for the World Cup in Germany, and after the performance of the Soca Warriors, we were told that our people have a fighting spirit, that they are resilient, tenacious, courageous, and so much more. Well, by dint of self-discipline the Soca Warriors made it to the World Cup.

Should we not be encouraging the same self-discipline among our youth with respect to their sexual behaviours?

Need more information or have comments? Please feel free to contact us at Emmanuel Community - 628-1064, 628-1586.