By Leocadia Bongben
The UN Programme on AIDS, UNIAIDS, through its advocacy programme dubbed "Y'ello Reglo", has encouraged responsible behaviour among youths as HIV/AIDS preventive measure.
Y'ello Reglo is a label name given to clubs in and out of schools for youths between15 and 24 years that contribute to HIV prevention through the reinforcement of capacities on skills as well as the use of guides and discussions.
Three partners involved in the project; UNIAIDS, MTN Foundation and Cameroon Association, launched the Programme recently at Mansel Hotel in the Fouda neighbourhood in Yaounde for Social Marketing, ACMS.
In her presentation, UNAIDS Coordinator, Nicole Massoud, underscored the necessity of playing the advocacy role and mobilising funds to fight against the pandemic amongst youths.
She indicated that HIV prevalence rate amongst youths is put at 3.2 percent. Besides, women have a higher prevalence rate with 4.8 percent.She quoted statistics, which indicate that five percent of young girls had their first sexual encounter before the age of 15, 88 percent before 18 years and only 18 percent used a condom.
Massoud stated that among those who had risky sexual behaviour, less than half declared to have used condoms in the last sexual intercourse.Against this backdrop, the feminisation of HIV has been attributed to trans-generational sex, idleness and the lack of role models among other things.
According to the UNIAIDS Coordinator, the Yello Reglo programme attracted her organisation because it was created by youths, the criteria for selection of the clubs and the themes tackled.
Presenting the project, Dr. Jean Christian Youmba, Permanent Secretary of ACMS, said Y'ello Reglo, which started in May 2007, would last for 10 months grouping 110 clubs in and out of school milieus and train 3000 youths over the national territory.
The project would support projects with a competition to be organised to select the best 10 in the provinces in December.
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