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Present at the meeting were guidance counselors from the Nation’s High Schools including: Tanza Bain and Winsome Ferron from Clement Howell High School, Miss Genieve Hunter from the Raymond Gardiner High School, Maria Clare of Marjorie Basden High and Mrs. Vivan Outonuye and Vernette Ferron. Also present was Miss Metessa Adams, deputy director of the National Youth Program.
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Guidance counselors: (Metessa Adams and Winsome Ferron hold up peer educator’s manual second picture)
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According to Mrs. Cherylann Jones, Coordinator of the National AIDS program; the objectives of the meeting were to plan the way forward for the upcoming training event. It is imperative that the program meets the needs of the young people who will be trained and those who will be reached by the peer educators. The meeting also served to secure the closer involvement of the schools so that the youths receive the necessary support when they go back to their respective schools.
Participants were given a short questionnaire which assessed the current programs within the schools and also sought to determine issues that needed to be addressed at the training exercise in particular and within the schools in general.
The peer educators program is a youth focused initiative developed and implemented by the National AIDS Program. Many of the high school peer educators go on to become members of the Rapport Youth Program which is the youth arm of the National AIDS Program. Both are built on the premise that young people when equipped with the skills and knowledge and guidance can help bring positive change within themselves and their peers. This program has been in existence for many years and was established through support from the Government of the Turks and Caicos and UNICEF. |
