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| University of the West Indies' hospitality and tourism lecturer Damion Crawford holds a note in mid-air during his address at the launch of the Hanover Parish Development Committee's condom-use social marketing campaign |
Lecturer speaks on Hiv/Aids at development campaign launch
Claudia Gardner, Hospitality Jamaica Writer
TRYALL, Hanover:
Lecturer in Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University
of the West Indies, Damion Crawford says greater efforts should
be made to educate the Jamaican people living and working in resort
areas concerning HIV/AIDS and ways to avoid contracting such illnesses.
"There is a clear correlation between tourist destinations
and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS," said Mr Crawford.
Mr Crawford made the comments at the launch of the Hanover Parish
Development Committee's (HPDC) 'Don't score without one" social
marketing campaign at The Tryall Hotel in Hanover last Thursday.
commendable initiative
"This initiative of the HPDC is commendable especially with
the new tourism enterprises coming here. But sex tourism is a staple
in Jamaican tourism. 'Rent-a-dread' is the biggest thing on the
lips of tourists who are leaving the island. Tourism is a good thing,
and cannot fail to educate our people on these pertinent issues."
Mr Crawford, a former president of the UWI Guild of Students, said
HIV/AIDS was one of the greatest impediments to economic development
in developing nations throughout the world, including Jamaica.
"In addition to the influences on aggregate economic performance,
individuals working in particular sectors within economies are likely
to be especially vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. HIV is particularly likely
to infect individuals in sectors that involve mobile and sex-segregated
labour, such as trucking, fishing, and the military; sectors that
have to do with sick people, such as health care; and sectors that
may be particularly sensitive to the risk of ill health, such as
tourism."
target groups
The social marketing campaign is being undertaken to help to curtail
the high rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the parish, by encouraging
condom use among the two target groups (men 25-39) and women (15-24).
It is expected that at the end of the campaign young people in the
target group will begin to practice safe sex, or for those who are
not sexually active, learn how to protect themselves.
The goal of the campaign, Mr. Crawford said, is to promote proper
condom use by making the concept/idea attractive, understandable
or "fashionable" to the youths, by translating in an entertaining
way, the language of health officials, into terms and ideas that
the target groups can understand and will be receptive to.
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