Cape Town | Tuesday
FORMER president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu are among prominent South Africans enlisted in a new campaign to encourage parents to talk openly to their children about sex.
The campaign is part of loveLife South Africa’s national HIV prevention programme for youth.
Embracing television, radio and the print media, the year-long campaign appeals directly to parents to ”love them enough” to talk more openly about sex, sexuality and relationships.
loveLife chief executive Dr David Harrison said on Monday that though HIV and sexual abuse topped parents’ list of concerns for their children, and over half of parents often talked with their youngsters about Aids, only 20% of parents talked often about the main cause of HIV risky sexual behaviour.
He said it was ”absolutely critical” to encourage parents to talk openly.
”We know from international experience that where there has been HIV reduction, key to that has been open, early and frank discussion of sex and sexuality.
”There is a very strong correlation between (children’s) sexual behaviour and the degree of openness and communication with their parents.”
The ”love them enough” campaign started running on February 17 and as part of it, Sunday newspapers at the weekend carried a full-page photograph of Tutu saying ”sex is a beautiful gift from God”.
Other figures involved in the campaign will include Deputy President Jacob Zuma, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, broadcaster Tim Modise, MP Patricia de Lille and cricketer Jonty Rhodes.
Harrison said President Thabo Mbeki was not asked to participate.
loveLife says teenagers in South Africa start having sex a lot earlier, and with more partners, than their peers in most countries. Six percent of young people have had sexual intercourse by age 13 and more than half of South African 16-year-olds have had penetrative sex.
It says sexual behaviour among South African teenagers is strongly determined by ”coercion, a sense of risk aversion, and sex for material benefits”.
About 12-million South Africans are under 15, and at current rates of infection half of them could contract HIV. – Sapa