|
|
Youth Reacting To AIDS |
|
As a member of Y.R.T.A (Youth Reacting To Aids), a group of young adults who volunteer their time to teach students about HIV/AIDS, I feel that it is important for you to support the Family Life Education Act. This recently introduced act would provide funding for education on both abstinence and contraception. As a peer educator and a student myself, I am convinced of the beneficial results that the passing of this act would produce in today’s youth.
Y.R.T.A is, as I mentioned, a small group of students from northern Fairfield county who volunteer their time to become peer educators. We receive extensive training in HIV/AIDS education, and then we go to local schools and speak to health classes about these issues. We have a Youth Empowerment Conference once a year where students from all over Connecticut come to participate in workshops geared to increase their awareness of the dangers that sexually active humans face.Currently we are including information about different contraceptives when we teach in schools. This is because we feel that teens should have access to protection, and should know how to protect themselves correctly. If all you ever tell a youth is “Don’t do it,” then when they make the decision to become sexually active they won’t be adequately prepared to protect themselves. Statistics show that most condom failures are due to incorrect use. Doesn’t it stand to reason that if we teach people the correct way to use a condom then fewer failures will occur? Consequently, won’t fewer people encounter sexually transmitted infections?
From my perspective as a teen and as someone who talks to teens about the issue of sex and protection, I cannot stress enough how beneficial the passing of the Family Life Education Act would be. Please consider this letter, and do what is best for America’s youth. Remember, we are your future, shouldn’t we be given a better chance to make it that far?
Last update: