Real life stories

Lauren (15) is a UNICEF Youth Advisor from the UK. From July 23-30, she is part of a team of seven young people from Britain going to Jamaica to gain knowledge of UNICEF supported activities in HIV and AIDS prevention, protection, care and support in Jamaica. Here is her personal blog from the trip.

Lauren: "I became a UNICEF UK Youth Adviser because the opportunity to have a strong voice in such a worthwhile organisation is very rare. To be able to make a difference is just amazing.”

Day One

So, after a 21-hour day, I’m finally in my hotel room in Kingston able to put down my thoughts! After a long wait in Gatwick, an even longer plane journey and a 3 hour wait at Kingston airport, we finally got to see Jamaica! Even the journey to our hotel from Kingston was amazing – it’s such a vibrant, bright, colourful place and the people are so friendly. I woke up this morning not really realising just what was happening but now we’re here I’m so excited to meet all of the Jamaican young people and see all of the projects I’ve heard so much about.

We do seem to have discovered Jamaican time though – it takes a while to do everything here, as the people are just so laid back and friendly! Today has been such an experience and we’ve only been here a few hours. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring (we’re going to see UNICEF Jamaica’s headquarters), although I could do with some sleep!

© UNICEF UK / 2007

UNICEF UK Youth Advisor Emily being interviewed by 'Teen Seen', a Jamaican Youth TV channel.

Day Two

After yet another early morning we went to UNICEF Jamaica’s offices and had an introduction to the HIV epidemic in Jamaica and UNICEF’s work here. Our briefing was done by Bertrand (the boss of UNICEF in Jamaica!) and a doctor from the Ministry of Health. I really feel now that the work we are doing here is so important, to raise as much awareness as we can of the problems faced by Jamaican young people, but also that I have a duty to bring as many of the positive things as I can back to the UK, for young people there to learn from. This trip really seems like a golden opportunity to make a difference – I still can’t believe that I’m really here!

In the afternoon we went to Ashe, a young people’s performing arts ensemble that tries to educate young people about HIV and other STIs through drama and musical performances. The whole group got involved in Ashe’s summer school, where they employed the EIC concept – Energise, Involve and Commit. They believe that if they energise and involve young people, commitment will follow, and I have to say, they’re right! I was unsure at the beginning, but after a few hours I was really involved. We watched Ashe perform some of their routines and the only word to describe them is amazing. I really hope that we can take back some of their videos and techniques to show young people in the UK – I cannot believe how effective and inspiring their performance was!

Today we were also interviewed by TeenSeen, a Jamaican youth Magazine programme on the TV that features weekly on National television in Jamaica. It’s a bit daunting to think that we’re going to be spreading UNICEF’s message across all of Jamaica! 

Overall, I just cannot believe how much I have learned in just one day, and how inspiring the young people and project we saw today were. It would be really great if we could take even a small part of what we saw today back to the UK.

© UNICEF UK / 2007

Youth Advisors Emily and Lauren at Panos Caribbean.

Day Three

Today we went to the offices of Panos Caribbean, an organisation that works with young journalists affected or infected by HIV. We were working with them to try to develop a campaign for the UK and Jamaica, and the main theme for our campaign seemed to become stigma and discrimination. Through these young people we really got a grasp of the stigma attached to HIV and AIDs in Jamaica – it makes the whole thing so much more real, hearing it from young people who have been there. Of course, stigma is also a problem in the UK, although not as widespread, because the number of young people living with HIV is not as high, but is continuing to rise.

However, the Panos young people taught us so much, they do so much positive work around a controversial issue in a country where HIV has massive stigma. During the day we also looked at some of the differences between campaign actions and what would work in the UK and Jamaica, and we found that our campaigns will really have to be developed differently– for instance, using the internet is a big part of campaigns in the UK, but the focus for the Jamaican young people seemed to be letter writing. The cultural differences, but also the similarities, were a focus of today, and again I feel as if I have learned so much from such an amazing group of inspiring young people.

Day Four

Today we went to Spanish Town, to see the Bashy Bus Kru and the Bashy Bus itself. The Bashy (party) Bus is a kind of mobile clinic, a multicoloured bus that travels around Jamaica where young people can go for almost instant HIV tests after receiving counselling. The Bashy Bus Kru travel round with the Bashy Bus, putting on “community dramas” to educate young people about issues important to them (HIV, violence, teenage pregnancies etc). Their inspirational performances also include music, as we saw when the Bashy Bus performed some of their routines for us to record and take back to the UK, as their methods are so effective here in Jamaica.

The Bashy Bus Kru also taught us some of their peer education techniques, and we had to make up skits revolving around issues like drug addiction, homosexuality and promiscuity. For a girl from a small town in England, it was a bit of a shock to the system but by the time we’d finished everyone was feeling much more confident. The Bashy Bus Kry believe that dramas should have three main parts: Problem, effect and solution. Their peer education techniques are really different to ours – they use a lot of music, dance and drama and we rely quite heavily on interactive workshops and games. Both methods seem to work however, but tend to reach different audiences. I think it would be nice to try some Jamaican peer education techniques in the UK, as they are so effective here it could be an opportunity to reach a whole new audience.

In the evening we went to a reception at the British High Commission (a high commission is an embassy, but between commonwealth countries), for a reception held in our honour. Lots of young people we had met during the week were there and I don’t think the High Commission has seen such a lively reception for a while! We were also interviewed by the youth supplements of Jamaica’s two national magazines, an amazing opportunity to get UNICEF’s key messages across. However it was really difficult to say goodbye, knowing that we may never see our friends again!

Today has been a long day, but there have been so many amazing opportunities to learn so much and to get UNICEF’s message across, so it’s been worth it!

© 2005 UNICEF Jamaica; Noorani, S.

Young boys surf the net at the free cybercafe provided through the Portmore Youth Information Centre

Day Five

Today, after a morning in the Jamaican sun, we went to visit Portmore Youth Information Centre, a youth centre in Portmore, about 20 minutes away from Kingston. It was a really friendly, informal day, an amazing way to learn about normal life for young people in Jamaica and get a feel for the interests and actions of a group of Jamaican young people. We had some really interesting discussions and dramas on issues that affect young people, such as crime and gender roles and the differences between them in the UK and Jamaica. We also played some Jamaican energisers that showed how young people in Jamaica learn about promiscuity from a young age, and had a really open and frank discussion about sex and reproductive health. A discussion like that would never happen in the UK, and showed up yet another cultural difference between the groups of young people, but throughout the day we learned just how similar we all were, regardless of which country we called home.

Today was a really amazing and rare opportunity to interact with young people and see just how ordinary young people are making a difference in their local communities.

All the Youth Advisors in a park in Kingston.

Day Six

Today we went to Port Antonio, an amazingly beautiful seaside town in Portland parish. After the longest hottest journey in the history of the entire world (or this UNICEF field trip at least) we had lunch by the marina with the young people from the Portland AIDS Association, just getting to know them.

After this and a general getting-to-know-you session we went for a ‘walk and talk’ in small groups around the centre of Port Antonio. A ‘walk and talk’ is basically a session where a group of young people go up to people in the town centre and ask them what they know about HIV and AIDS, dispel myths, give out information and do condom demonstrations. The walk and talk was so interesting, because it seemed like the high-profile Jamaican media campaigns had worked, as most people knew quite a bit about HIV and AIDS. However, we did hear some of the myths about how it could be spread, especially people asking if if could be spread through sharing cutlery or kissing. It was really interesting that people seem to know how to protect themselves and what HIV was, but there were quite a few myths surrounding transmittance of the virus.

However, it was amazing to see people really interacting and getting involved, really responding to what we were saying and doing, alt5hough some people did walk off when we mentioned we were going to be talking about HIV. I could never imagine a walk and talk happening in Britain!

I would definitely say that today was worth the 7 hours we spent on a bus – observing the differences in culture between the UK and Jamaica was so interesting, and the day was worth it if not for that!