Countries in Focus
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Jamaica
Jamaica has made great strides in providing children with access to health, nutrition, education and social services. However, the proportion of children living in poverty remains a great concern. Violence and abuse remain a serious issue for children, reports of sexual abuse are common and 91 children were murdered in 2005.
Children and youth in Jamaica are particularly vulnerable to HIV and AIDS and infection rates of young females especially are on the rise. Adolescent girls ages 10-19 are almost three times more likely to become infected with HIV than boys within the same age group. The higher rates of female adolescent infection is attributed to early sexual initiation, young girls having sex with infected older men, high rates of forced sex and widespread unsafe practices among adolescents. Nearly 10 per cent of reported AIDS cases are in children under 18 years of age and 20 per cent are among young people aged 20 to 29.
UNICEF-supported youth centres were established in Jamaica to combat the myths and misconceptions about HIV and AIDS and to offer youth-friendly services including HIV prevention skills building activities. Youth Information Centre staff and youth leaders are trained in behaviour change communication skills including Voluntary Confidential Counseling and Testing for HIV.
UNICEF is also working to procure, equip and maintain mobile health clinics, such as the Bashy Bus, to disseminate and deliver sexual and reproductive health services to 30,000 adolescents. In addition, UNICEF is helping children living with AIDS and those affected by AIDS by increasing income generating capacities through projects such as chicken rearing and vegetable farming.
A Young Woman Makes Activism her Life
Read MoreKerrel McKay was ten years old when her father was diagnosed with AIDS. Her parents were separated and, at age 14, she had to take on the burden of caretaking.
“I had to wash his home, wash his clothes. I had to do his grocery shopping and take him to doctor’s appointments,” Kerrel remembers. That was hard, but it was even harder when her father became too sick for her to continue caring for him. Then he was moved into a hospice.
When her father later died, Kerrel’s initial feelings of despair were soon converted into an energetic vision. “I realized I could educate young people,” she says. “I could use my story to help people understand we are all affected by this disease.” In 2000, she started the Portland Parish Youth Committee, an arm of the UNICEF-supported Portland AIDS Committee in her hometown in Jamaica.
Bashy Bus Takes AIDS Awareness to the Streets
Read More“We no waan no old grumpy, grumpy people, we want people dat respect we!” These are the lyrics to a song emanating from Jamaica’s Bashy Bus. Sung by the energetic “Bashy Bus Kru”, it’s a call for young people to gather at the bus and learn about reproductive health in a safe environment.
Young lives transformed by the Bashy Bus message of AIDS prevention
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