Symbolically, they spoke of a key health concern that threatens to chip away at Belize?s greatest foundation for development?the youth.
Perhaps the most shocking revelation coming out of our interviews was a declaration by Dangriga resident, Karima Higinio, 20, that a primary school student of Standard 6, not even old enough to have consensual sex, admitted to having sex, using an oiled plastic bag to protect herself from HIV.
Last week, during Youth Week, she and a group of community-minded youth, were doing their rounds at schools in Dangriga.
?We use plastic bag?? she said a primary school student told them.
?We asked the young lady, ?how unu manage to jook [have sex] with plastic bag? They just oil the plastic bag?? she added.
Karima said that while young people, for the most part, know the risk of having unprotected sex, they do not protect themselves.
The risk of exposure to the deadly HIV virus is very real to three young people we spoke with, who all personally knew someone who died from AIDS. Two of them had lost close relatives to the disease.
Another Dangriga resident, Devon Jones, 24, gave testimony of having lost a niece to HIV/AIDS.
?From my personal experience,? said Jones, ?it was kind of rough, but then still, even though it played that kind of way, I did not give up. We hang out with each other, we swam, and it was hard to tell that the person was positive.?
He said that his niece looked normal.
?The only difference is?she did not catch sores or anything like that?the only thing is, she caught a fever and when she caught the fever, that broke her down,? Jones added.
For him, the biggest problem is not the disease itself, but the stigma, which, he says, takes a greater toll on people living with HIV/AIDS than anything else. The orphaned children of his niece, then ages 7 and 9, were stigmatized even though they were HIV negative and after two years ended up moving away to the States, partly because of the discrimination they faced, said Jones.
?When people found out that, oh, she died from this. You should have seen the reaction to the little children and none of them were positive. She caught it long after her children were born. So that was kind of stupid,? Jones articulated.
That was four years ago, and Jones said that the attitude of Belizeans against HIV/AIDS patients and their children has not improved, for the most part. The public still fails to understand that you won?t catch it by ordinary touching, he notes.
?When they found out that these kids? mother died from AIDS, everybody, [said] like, ?I noh wah you rung me, becaw yur ma ded from AIDS, mine you gat it tuh and if yu touch me, I wah kech it.? And those kinds of dumb remarks, remarks that make no sense,? he recollected.
Kendra Henkis, 21, today played the role of a young girl (in a skit) who caught the virus after her sex partner changed her mind from using a condom. She advises other young people that if they are having sex, they should protect themselves by using a condom every time. ?No condom, no sex,? she insisted.
The skit also highlighted the issue of discrimination, which forced the young woman to eventually commit suicide by running into a moving taxi.
Kendra, herself, lost a friend to HIV/AIDS only two months ago. He was diagnosed in November 2004, less than a year before he died.
?He was someone very friendly, outgoing, strong, and he found out that he had the AIDS virus,? she recalled, ?and when he found that out, before I could even know that he had it, someone else came to me and told me he had it.?
Soon, the so-called friends of his disappeared and only a few stuck by his side. Kendra said that because she understands how HIV is transmitted, she never felt uncomfortable around him.
?It seems like he caught a flu or some sort of infection and that was it,? she related.
We asked her, ?What about abstinence, ?cause there?s not much talk about abstinence. Why is that??
Her reply was that seven out of ten young people are sexually active. Kamari said that most sexually active people have more than one partner. Both are of the opinion that preaching condom use is the best advice they can give their peers.
Still, Kendra noted that unprotected sex with infected people is not the only way of getting the virus: ?Say I go and do a blood transfusion at the hospital or wherever, if I get the blood with the virus or say I go and put in a tattoo or someone comes and punctures my skin with a needle, maybe that needle was infected?so there?s many ways that you can catch the virus without having sex,? she said.
Karima Higinio has lost a cousin from HIV/AIDS. She died about a year ago, leaving behind two children who are now 5 and 8. They are now in the care of their grandmother in Belize City.
?From our family experience, we did not discriminate or stigmatize against her because she was our personal family, and we tried our best to help her, try to do everything for her so that she would not feel left out from the family,? she continued.
According to Kamira, her cousin died because she caught the flu. ?That is what finished breaking down her system,? she explained. She was 25 when she died.
?My advice that I have for young people in the country of Belize,? said Karima, ?is to please use the ABC method, which is A stands for abstinence, but the majority of people, young people, engage in sex from an early age. So we cannot securely say that abstinence is the best way. B is be faithful, but majority of people have more than one sex partner, which is not correct, and we try to preach it, but no one listens. And C stands for condomize, which is I think the best option for everyone. Please use your condom whenever you have sex and without a condom, please say no to sex.?
Current data place the worldwide count of HIV infections at 40 million. AIDS has reportedly taken 25 million lives, leaving 15 million children orphaned.