Posted by By Chukwuma Muanya on
COMMUNITY Health Physicians in Africa have blamed the high rate of HIV/AIDS spread on the wrong handling of sexuality education .
COMMUNITY Health Physicians in Africa have blamed the high rate of HIV/AIDS spread on the wrong handling of sexuality education .
The experts made the assertion at a conference on sexual health and wellbeing organised by Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Centre,(ARSRC) in collaboration with the departments of Sociology and Community Health, University of Lagos.
Participanta at the conference were drawn from International Islamic Centre for Population Studies and Research, Al Azhar University, Cairo; Kenyan Association of professional counsellors, Nairobi; Department of community health, college of medicine University of Lagos, and Health system Trust, Johannesburg.
Dr Victor Nnamdi Sebastian, a community health physician at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, said HIV/AIDS has put sexuality at the centre of policy concern. He, however, argued that sexuality should be equated to sexual behaviour, be it risky or safe.
''There is need to view issues of sexuality in a broader context," he said. "That is why sexuality should be incorporated in primary and secondary levels. This is because sexuality is a social, political and economic concern around which much of our traditional and modern societies are structured."
He said people needs to be re-educated, myths have to be thrown away, facts have to be giving to people "and, of course, as much we should not make decisions for people, we should be able to give them all the available facts and let them make the most appropriate decisions for their life."
ARSRC is a project of Action Health Incorporated (AHI) established in 2002, as one of the four sexuality resource centres set-up around the world under the Ford Foundation initiative on ''Global Dialogue on Sexual Health and wellbeing.''
Joyce Njoki Mbugua, a community health expert from Daystar University Nairobi, said , ''when you talk of sexuality education, what people think about is sex education which does not apply. Sex education is a component of sexuality education. I advocate for sexuality education to be incorporated into the national curriculum in schools across Africa."