Miss CARICOM beauties join pledge to fight HIV/AIDS
Kaieteur News
July 8, 2004
The Miss CARICOM beauties pledged to take immediate action to prevent the spread of HIV and to respect persons living with HIV/AIDS when they signed the ‘Me to You- Reach One- Save One’ pledge at the Ministry of Health, yesterday.
‘Me to You, Reach One – Save One’ campaign is a signature-based crusade that encourages individuals to take immediate action to prevent the spread of HIV.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy initiated the venture funded by USAID and assisted by Population Services International (PSI).
The campaign was launched on March 15 last, at the National Cultural Centre with the goal to harness 100,000 persons.
Since the signature campaign was launched, some prominent Guyanese and Caribbean personalities have signed on. These include, West Indies Vice Captain, Ramnaresh Sarwan; Women’s World Light heavyweight Boxing Champion, Gwendolyn O’ Neil; reigning Miss Guyana Universe, Ms Odessa Phillips; and UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS to the Caribbean, Sir George Alleyne.
In an invited comment, the contestants spoke openly about the prevalence of HIV in the Caribbean.
Miss Belize, Tanika Muslar agreed that the pandemic of HIV and AIDS is definitely one that needs to be resolved. She opined that the root of the HIV phenomenon is poverty.
She said prevention of HIV does not lie within the virus itself but in the socio-psycho issues that impair people’s positive choices.
“Of course, other factors contribute to the problem, but once you address the root problem, poverty, there can be some breakthrough,” Miss Belize said.
Miss Guyana, Kaye-Ann Hall, reiterated that HIV should be prioritised at every level of society. She addressed the problem of discrimination, saying that a person is treated equally before he or she is tested positive for HIV.
That same treatment should be meted out to them after they would have been tested positive.
Asked what she thinks can be done to abate the spread of the virus she responded, “We are doing so much campaigning, educating people about how to protect themselves from contracting the HIV virus, that we just need to continue this awareness and maybe take it out to the wider Caribbean,” Miss Guyana suggested.
The next contestant interviewed was Miss Haiti, Ludline Dejoie, who said that there needs to be a lot more awareness among Caribbean people to practise safe sex. She revealed that awareness is not high in Haiti that has the highest infection rate in the Caribbean.
Miss Dejoie, agreed that wherever poverty pervades, HIV thrives.
Miss St. Lucia, Portia Cherry, determined that HIV is a plague.
“A lot of people don’t take it seriously.” she added, “They figure that I look good so nothing is wrong. We definitely need to talk more openly about this disease,” she stated.
Miss Grenada, Thea Duncan, whose platform is HIV, said that there are lots of factors contributing to the spread of the HIV virus in the Caribbean.
“Caribbean men are known to be very promiscuous.”
Miss Grenada stated that attitudes must change if we are going to win the fight against HIV.
“An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure,” she advised.