Japanese lecturer at local workshop on HIV/AIDS, abstinence
THE Guyana Chapter of Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Wednesday hosted a one day education and training seminar at Regency Suites, in Hadfield Street, Stabroek, Georgetown. At the conclusion, organisers said close to 100 persons emerged passionate and empowered to take the messages of abstinence and HIV/AIDS to their peers across Guyana, with the aim of positively influencing behaviour change.
Under the theme ‘Abstinence, HIV/AIDS and Character Education’, the programme was interactive and had the added feature of gathering together a diverse group of persons whose ages spawned about three generations.
Participants were drawn from several faith-based, non-governmental and civil society organisations and among them, as well, were teenage high school students. Together, they were beneficiaries of a dynamic three-part presentation, delivered by Reverand Takeshi Furuta, Ambassador for Peace, from Tokyo, Japan who arrived last Tuesday on his third visit to Guyana.
He lectured on abstinence, teens living in the age of AIDS, drivers and impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the way forward.
Furuta began his discourse with an assessment of the need for abstinence education and looked, critically and analytically, at family breakdown, parental concerns and what he referred to as ‘Youth in Crisis’. He cited teenage pregnancies, sex, drugs and alcohol abuse, crime and the explosive growth of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), which affect young people, negatively, in a variety of ways.
Furuta noted that the current reality in the world and today’s greatest tragedy is the breakdown of the family, giving rise to youth problems.
He posited that, due to the failure of families, societies worldwide are in confusion, especially teens, stemming from a deluge of ambivalent messages about safer sex conflicting with that of abstinence and, sometimes, leaving youths in total disarray.

Educated
Furuta contended there should be no question of protected or unprotected sex among young people. His contention was that they should be educated, fed with the right information about values, the sacredness of the body, how it functions, what constitutes abuses of it and the advantages of abstaining from sex, alcohol and drug use and what behaviours make people feel good about themselves.
He also looked at the causes and stages of HIV, its modes of transmission, reasons for getting tested, opportunistic infections and the level of protection offered by condoms. Contending that HIV and other STDs can be contracted in a single sexual encounter, Furuta warned that, upon becoming infected, one’s health, relationship and life, itself, may be forever changed.
Pastor Ronald Mc Garrell, National Leader of Family Federation for World Peace, Guyana Chapter, emphasised the need for young people to act responsibly and said they must understand that relationships have certain values attached.
He concurred that young people should abstain from sexual relationships until they get married and that parents should help them towards that objective.                                                                               
Alluding to the idea behind the workshop, Mc Garrell said Family Federation promotes the ideal family.
He said: “It is our belief that, if we do not fix the family, we cannot fix society.” It is against that background that such programmes are being promoted, Mc Garrell said, pointing out that they have been conducting workshops at schools and churches.  
He observed that some of the additional problems caused when people become infected with HIV include down time; loss to the workplace and, ultimately, the economy, because sick persons cannot work; the cost of health care; the stigma attached when other workers develop skepticism and do not want to work alongside the afflicted. 
“We feel that, if people are educated, then we can avoid these complications,” Mc Garell said. 
Participants at the forum shared ideas and offered suggestions for grappling with the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other societal problems.
Others contributing to the discussion included Nobue Koizumi, Director of the Youth and Family Association for International Cooperation and Exchange and Ambassador for Peace, Universal Peace Federation, Guyanese attorney-at-law Ms. Sheila Chapman and Ms. Elsie Bovell of the Business School.
At the conclusion, those who participated were presented with certificates of participation issued by Furuta.