Group knocks condom give away

AN umbrella organisation comprising religious groups has called for the Ministry of Education to ensure that Advocates for Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (AYSRHR) are not allowed to continue distributing condoms at any schools in TT.

It has also appealed for the Ministry of National Security to monitor the situation so there is no precedent that will lead to other activities at schools which may be illegal “for example, the promotion of illegal drugs and guns.” In a media release yesterday, Life is for Everyone (LIFE) which includes the Inter-Religious Organisation, the Christian Council of Churches, Council of Evangelical Churches, Imam E-Zamana Mission condemned the action of the youth group. Last Wednesday AYSRHR reportedly handed out condoms to students of Woodbrook Secondary School. “It is our understanding that most of these students were from the lower forms of the school.”

LIFE said the distribution of condoms undermined the authority of parents, teachers and the Education Ministry. “The group’s action sought to impose on the children sexual values and practices which are at variance with those of their parents and of their religious traditions.” It called for AYSRHR to immediately stop distributing condoms and literature of a sexual content in any of TT’s schools. LIFE urged all parents, teachers, guardians to counsel their children and students for their own safety, “that they should not, for their own safety, be lured into accepting supposedly ‘free’ gifts presented to them.”