The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET Tribune Features Reporter CHILDREN in the Bahamas living with HIV have found a home away from home at the Bahamas AIDS Foundation. The after-school programme operated by the foundation regularly attracts some 30 children for afternoon activities. The efforts made by the foundation were shared with stakeholders from around the Caribbean at the 2011 Caribbean HIV Conference on Saturday. Camille Lady Barnett, president of the Bahamas AIDS Foundation, said the event was an excellent opportunity to highlight the foundation's youth initiative. The four-day conference ended yesterday. "The reason why we started to work with them is because the consultant pediatrician at the Princess Margaret Hospital said that some of the adolescents who are HIV positive are not taking their medication. We wanted to find a way to provide support to them to encourage them to take their medication," said Lady Barnett. "We initially help them with homework or any kind of school work that they have to do. We get them involved in some psycho-social intervention of some sort," she said. Children living with HIV sometimes find it difficult to live a normal life because of the neglect from parents or guardians. Lady Barnett said the programme aims to provide the children with support and to build up their self-esteem by showing them that they are loved. "These children are HIV positive and that's a status that they will have for the rest of their life, so we teach them coping skills to learn how to understand what that means for them and the rest of their life," said Lady Barnett. The regional audience at the conference appreciated the local efforts to address the youth stakeholder group, said Lady Barnett. Based on the questions posed, she said participants saw the topic as a very important one. "I spoke to a social worker from Jamaica and she was quite interested in our programme. I learned that she also works with adolescents and has the same issues of getting them to take their medications like they should," said Lady Barnett. "She was interested in how she can translate what I was doing here with the after-school programme to her situation in Jamaica. It was all an overall opportunity to give the various presenters a chance to share and learn from each other," she said. Under the theme "Strengthening Evidence To Achieve Sustainable Action", the conference specifically focused on HIV in the Caribbean region, the region with the second highest adult HIV prevalence in the world. Participating in the opening ceremony of the conference, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham discussed the multi-faceted issues facing the region's battle to combat the disease.