Even despite the publicity blitz targeted at young people through television and radio adverts and colorful posters, sexuality and HIV/AIDS are still taboo topics for some parents and teachers to discuss with young people. Still, more and more young people – ignorant of the facts of life – are falling victims to sexual exploitation and abuse, contracting HIV, and getting pregnant too early in life.
The director of the Belize Family Life Association, Joan Burke, notes that according to official statistics, one in five babies born in Belize is to a girl under the age of 18. Even more startling are statistics that indicate that every year, between 20 to 25 babies are born to girls under 12 years of age, and the youngest ever to give birth is a girl at the tender age of 9.
“Imagine! A young baby giving birth to a baby!” Burke lamented.
But the problem with teenagers engaging in sex – and unprotected sex at that – is not just the risk of them having babies are a very early age, it is the clear and present threat of contracting HIV, and furthermore, passing it on to their unborn child.
HIV prevalence data links the transmission of the virus with the rape of young girls – rape because it is illegal for a male to have sex with a girl under the age of 16, which is the youngest legal age at which a girl can give consent for engaging in sexual intercourse.
The 15 to 29 age group among females and the 37 to 40 age group in males are the groups showing among the highest prevalence rates, confirming conventional knowledge that older men are sexually exploiting young girls, placing them at high risk of infection.
Advocates believe that this information is not discussed enough, and the BFLA team hopes that putting it all in the context of an educational and interactive board game that young people can play, or that families can play together, will encourage people to open up the dialogue and improve awareness among young people.
The challenging game helps put young people in the mindset of thinking through major sexuality decisions – and they score points for choosing the right option. The thorns in the game signal warnings that they could end up hurting themselves – that they could end up dead.
For World AIDS Day last year, 47 schools participated in a board game competition. One board game, titled Thorns by Miss Tristaca Anderson, currently a student of St. John’s College Extension, was the winning entry. BFLA’s team took the concept and turned it into Belize’s first ever “made in Belize” board game.
The game, Thorns, was launched this morning at the Queens Room of the Princess Hotel in Belize City in the presence of over 100 high school and Galen University students.
Burke thanked Print Belize for blazing the trail in producing the board game, even though at first Print Belize said they could not, because they had not taken on such a venture before. But with the encouragement of BFLA, which sought quotations from places like Mexico, the USA and Taiwan, Print Belize finally took on the task, and their product is of international quality.
Burke also gave kudos to the inmates of Kolbe Foundation, who created the pawns for the wooden, hand-painted board game.
The project had the financial support of the Caribbean Family Planning Association, and UNESCO.
UNESCO’s country manager, Dr. David Brown, who spoke at today’s launch, congratulated the creators of the board game, and expressed the hope that other ideas will flow from this first time initiative. Dr. Brown furthermore pledged UNESCO’s support for this and other similar initiatives, especially those targeted at educating young people.
Assisted by Dr. Brown, Miss Burke of BFLA presented a complimentary board game to each school present at this morning’s launch.
The games will be provided to all the schools, and additional units are available for sale through the organization.
Thorns is geared at anyone from age 10 to adult, and two to six people can play a session together.
The launch of Thorns coincides with World AIDS Day, observed annually on December 1.
The slogan used for the game is: “Getting pricked is just the beginning.”