Kerdisha St.Louis First Vice President, NYCD 
Left to right; Renatta Langlais, David Hodge and Kerdisha 
Kerdisha with Dereck Sprigner, PANCAP Director 
Contribution to dialogue with stakeholders 
Discovering Challenges and Creating Soultions 
Third Regional Meeting of Youth Leaders
The Third Regional Meeting of Youth Leaders on Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS just wrapped up in Trinidad and Tobago. The conference was organized by the Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP), CARPHA, CARICOM, CVCC and PAHO among others. The First Vice President of the National Youth Council, Kerdisha St. Louis, and other prominent Dominican youths were in attendance.
The 4-days event addressed the Caribbean’s approach to dealing with the HIV epidemic. The main thrust was to outline strategies for HIV prevention, sexual reproductive health, gender identity and equality, as well as healthy sexual orientations.
St. Louis expressed joy at being selected to take part in the programme. She was part of the steering committee for the first edition which held in 2017 and organized by the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition.
“This experience was not only one of the most intense and innovative events that I have ever participated in but I believe it gave myself and the other participants the essential tools we need in order to better assist Dominican adolescents and youth across the board as it relates to access to sexual reproductive health services,” St. Louis said.
According to her, the first day focused on adolescent health, reproductive health, youth advocacy, and legislation relating to sexual health and diseases. The second day focused on achieving greater access to better reproductive health, the use of social media to advocate for LGBT groups and related human rights issues, addressing the stigma and discrimination against LGBT persons.
The third and fourth day examined HIV/AIDS issues and comprehensive sexual education for youths in the Caribbean. The forum also highlighted the need to share knowledge and maintain a database of events related to sexual and reproductive health as well as gender equality and violence in the region.
Dereck Springer is the director of PANCAP and spoke on how the Caribbean Regional Youth Advocacy Framework (CRYAF) has been achieving long strides in reproductive health and rights.
“After developing the CRYAF with input from youth, we recognized that it was important to build youth leaders’ advocacy skills so that they would be better prepared to advocate at the regional and national levels”, Director Springer stated. “This was done during the second meeting of youth leaders, and the approach was successful as we now have a dynamic group of young people who are passionate and innovative in their approach to advocacy”.
Renatta Langlais and David Hodge accompanied Kerdisha St. Louis to the regional conference. The three are all from Dominica.
Posted by PANCAP-Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS on Tuesday, July 30, 2019
This article is copyright © 2019 DOM767
