SURINAME: Youth and HIV

HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects young people in Suriname. Maybe that’s why youth are one of the biggest activist groups in the country.

Sixty to 80 per cent of new HIV cases each year are in the age group 15-49. Young girls are particularly vulnerable. Around 20 per cent of births annually are the result of teen pregnancy, confirming early sexual initiation and unprotected sex trends.

kids being kids at Galibi beach / World AIDS Day parade

Some teenagers deal with their unwanted pregnancies through abortion, which is illegal in Suriname, but preformed by almost all gynecologists, according to Stichting Lobi.

A lack of trained professionals leading the fight against HIV/AIDS, the weak NGO organization structure and Suriname's cultural diversity all work toward an inefficient system: splitting aid money and development into many programs and projects with overlapping mandates, according to Suriname's National AIDS Program.

When I first began meeting with various youth groups, they were no different than their parent organizations: isolated, competing for limited funds and downright paranoid of other groups stealing their members and ideas.

At the same time, youth are some of the most proactive public educators out there. NGO and AIDS organization youth branches pamphlet the streets, make media appearances and continue to brain storm new ways of informing their peers about reproductive health.

Success stories.

YAH members / Youth attending a media training seminar