Bahamas Red Cross take to the streets, with Eleutheran 'peer educators'

Bahamas Red Cross with the Eleutheran peer educators walking toward Eleuthera Supply, and the Business Complex owned by the Bethels.

The Bahamas Red Cross, with a team of Eleutheran ‘peer educators’ took to the streets of Governor’s Harbour on Friday January 11th, 2013 targeting HIV/AIDs.

The well trained group visited businesses throughout town on the afternoon, distributing educational pamphlets on HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care and also giving out condoms.

This community walk-about came at the end of a two day workshop with representatives from the Red Cross and the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Project as facilitators. The four person team included project coordinator, John Darville; field officer, Denise Roker; and two ‘peer educators’, Bernard Petit-Homme and Kewanda Thurston.  Director General of the Bahamas Red Cross, Caroline Turnquest, was also on island for the first day of sessions.

The workshop, held at the St. Patrick’s Parish Hall in Governor’s Harbour, targeted young adults aged 18 to 30 from all walks of life throughout Eleuthera.  Twenty two young persons from as far north as Harbour Island and the Bluff to Deep Creek in the south participated in the two day educational training on HIV/AIDS and its prevention.  The participants were being trained as ‘peer educators’, equipped to use the information received to share with others in their daily lives.

Organizers said that they were very pleased with the cadre of young persons who took part, being from a dynamic cross-section of the Eleuthera community, including business professionals, married young persons, expectant mothers, young parents and others.

The day session on Thursday ran from 8:30 am until 5pm, and the session on Friday began at 8:30 am wrapping up around 3pm in the afternoon.

This is not the last of these workshops, said project coordinator, Darville, stating that this planned intervention project will continue into 2014, with at least three additional workshops to be held in the north and south districts with the same purpose of educating young adults to share their acquired information with peers.

A community fair is also on the planning table to round out the intervention project, where the Bahamas Red Cross would provide food, clothing, information on HIV/AIDS and healthy lifestyles, and the Red Cross ‘meals on wheels’ program.