– urges IPPF advisor

LUCELLA Campbell, Senior Programme Advisor for the Caribbean working out of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) in New York, has found that there needs to be a change in the ‘conversation’ around sex and sexuality in the Caribbean.
The IPPF official is currently on a visit to Guyana and wants to find out just what is happening at the various family planning organisations.

Speaking with Guyana Chronicle, Campbell explained what she meant by a change in the ‘sex conversation’.

“Right now, whenever the word sex comes up, people snigger; it’s as if there’s some shame or some apology that they think needs to be attached to the whole thesis of sex and sexuality. All of us are here because of sex. I mean, sex is what is behind physical existence. To me, it is something we need to change our understanding of; we really need to re-shape our thinking around sex and see it as something central to humanity; central to being physical beings and really celebrate sex,” she expressed.
Explaining further, she offered: “When we talk about celebrating sex, we’re not talking about going out and having as much sex as possible and with as many partners as possible. We are talking about recognising it as something central to life. You celebrate it with responsibility.”

She called on the schools, the PTAs, religious bodies, and just every individual to be better informed on the subject and teach their children about it correctly.
The low contraceptive prevalence rate here, being only at 37 per cent, is what results in many persons not having control of their lives.

“Men and women are not taking control of their reproductive lives; they’re having babies without plan and that’s a problem. We can see the repercussions of that in the society, especially when we have a certain degree of poverty in the country. Women end up being dependent on men and the gender dynamics come into play in terms of them not having control over their lives. So the business of being cognisant of your decision-making is really important,” Campbell said.

Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA) Director, Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth said with Guyana being the country with the second highest adolescent pregnancies, the GRPA has moved to prepare a policy to reintegrate pregnant and parenting adolescent girls into school. “We find a whole cycle of poverty and abuse. The cycle just continues. How do we enable the breaking of the cycle?” she asked.

She recalled how the GRPA was established a few years after Guyana gained its Independence, out of the need for women to take control of their lives; from the recognition that women play an important role in the society and have rights too.
Commenting on the issue of the low use of contraceptives in Guyana, Bisnauth noted that without family planning, the ‘burden’ of reproduction falls only on the woman. “It becomes a burden; it shouldn’t be a burden but when it’s not shared, when it’s not controlled or planned, it is a burden.”

Bisnauth said the areas in Guyana which are located far from the city ought to be looked at, as many of them lack proper access to contraceptives. “The Ministry of Health has many possibilities to enable units in the community.”

Even so, Bisnauth noted how there are often reports of women who do not turn up at the various facilities to uplift such contraceptives. However, such ones, she said, still must not be left to their plight. “To get to what’s happening to people is to visit their homes. It takes a lot of resources but I think it’s possible.”