Media students launch Love Safely Campaign

In an effort to get more young people to live safer lives and to educate them on the dangers of engaging in risky sexual behaviours, two students of the Associate Degree in Mass Communications have joined with the Ministry of Health and the nursing department to launch the Love Safely Campaign with the theme “Be Safe Not Sorry”.

 

Speaking at the launch yesterday in the Students Guild, one of the coordinators of the Love Safely Campaign, Katrina King said that the initiative was originally a part of one of their courses, but then on interviewing students across the campus for the project, they realized that there was a lack of knowledge amongst the student body concerning practicing safe sex.

 

“For the next three weeks, the students of the Mass Communications programme will aim to educate, inform and empower the student population of the Barbados Community College about the importance of loving safely. This is part of our Mass Media and Society, which seeks to examine the impact on society. On receiving this assignment, we sought to investigate the level of knowledge about HIV and STIs. There was still ignorance and a significant knowledge gap on the concept of safe sex.”

 

With this in mind, they decided to expand the project and make it a campus-wide event where all could come and gain more knowledge, get tested and walk away with educational pamphlets and condoms, stated the student.

 

“This caused us to focus our campaign on condom use, the importance of testing and to stress on the need to apply all information in your daily lives. We stress to all young adults, be it the 16-year-old who may need to visit the clinic with their parents or the 23-year-old expectant mother, protect yourself, be safe not sorry.”

 

The other coordinator of the campaign, Shannon Gooding said that it took a lot of hard work to put this event together.

 

“We launch today April 6th, a month of education and fun-filled activities to stimulate awareness of STIs and HIV in the BCC student programme. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been tirelessly working to pull off this month of activities, hoping for the best. From our first year, the students of Mass Communications have been tasked with finding innovative ways to spread the message of safe sex and abstinence. With great assistance from the HIV Commission, we have produced public service announcements, interviewed medical practitioners and those with the disease.”

 

Some of the other activities that they would be hosting as part of their month of activities include a march – the Pure Living Rally – by first and second year BCC students on April 13th and a frank discussion on April 20th in the Liberal Arts Auditorium under the theme of ‘Where de Condoms at?” (PJT)