ROTARY ENLISTS STUDENTS

On Tuesday, scores of teenagers and women and, incidentally, some men as well, demonstrated against HIV/AIDS on International Women’s Day to highlight their concerns about the dreaded virus/disease affecting many in Trinidad and Tobago today. This weekend more than 130 students from several countries in the Caribbean, including Trinidad and Tobago, will debate the “right of universal access to anti-retroviral therapy for all living with AIDS” at the Rotary Club of Central Port-of-Spain’s Model United Nations Assembly to be held at the Cascadia Hotel.

If on Tuesday the protesters marched with placards, on Saturday and Sunday, many of the Caribbean students, troubled as those on Tuesday by the continued rise in AIDS among the population, will argue for the opportunity for all, both in the region and overseas, to be positioned to fight the scourge. The two-day residential debate, which is being sponsored by the National AIDS Coordinating Committee, will have an address by the Minister of Education, Senator Hazel Manning.

Rotary International, parent body of Rotary Clubs worldwide, has declared 2004/2005 as the year in which all Rotary Clubs shall be involved in an HIV/AIDS awareness or support project. The debate will be conducted along the lines of debates at the United Nations, and the Rotary Club of Central Port-of-Spain is receiving the tacit support of foreign missions here, — the United Nations Information Centre, teachers and other Rotarians of other clubs. Of special significance is that this year’s exercise, the seventh to be held by the Rotary Club of Central Port-of-Spain, is taking place in the Centennial Year of the founding of the Rotary movement by Paul Harris, and is a critical component of Rotary International’s continuing war on HIV/AIDS.

The Caribbean students will represent various countries at the UN and will be described as delegates. They are expected to take the message and fight against HIV/AIDS back to their respective countries, schools and communities. Apart from the debate itself and the arguments put forward, the students, who embrace some of the best emerging minds in the region, will interact with each other and exchange ideas on measures adopted by their respective countries both to avoid and counter HIV/AIDS. Rotary International recognises as does, for example, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, and understandably so, that HIV/AIDS is not to be dismissed as a “they” thing concerning only those who are “unlucky” enough to be affected, and that others not similarly circumstanced are entitled to consider themselves safe. The truth is that until people everywhere are prepared to respond and take preventive measures all will be at risk and the disease will continue to spread at a devastating rate.

There is recognition worldwide, particularly in low income developing countries, of the need for drugs to fight HIV/AIDS and to be readily within the reach of the poorest nations, otherwise all people, rich and poor alike will be at risk. The 130 plus Caribbean students who will join in the debate on March 12-13, whether as protagonists or devil’s advocates, are essentially young men and women, who at the end of the exercise will be better positioned to assist in the war on HIV/AIDS in their respective countries.