THE EDITOR, Sir:

As I drove down Half-Way Tree Road on Valentine's Day, I saw two young women in the road happily clad in red and white outfits, standing with laden plastic bags. The traffic had stopped and several motorists had been gesticulating, stretching their hands towards the women to get whatever they were distributing`. Intrigued, I approached the women, quickly realising they were giving out condoms. One of the women gladly walked to the car waving her products asking me to wind down my window. I sped off with my 13-year-old brother in the passenger seat, aghast at the fact that the matter of sex was to be taken so lightly.

The plan outlined by the Ministry of Health to give minors under 16 condoms after receiving counselling is absolutely preposterous and outrageous. Giving minors condoms is like placing food before a hungry dog. They begin to yearn for ways to use what they receive. They begin to salivate and become even hungrier. It gives them the idea that sex is only a fun-free activity and giving them condoms is actually encouraging them to have loose, casual sex. It gives them the idea that what they are engaging in, without a commitment, is acceptable.

I concede that the sexual appetite exists, I have the same desires, but condoms being handed out, even after counselling, is without discretion and portrays sex before marriage as a 'must have'.

I have watched as my government has scrambled to find solutions to the high levels of teenage pregnancy and HIV-AIDS, which threaten my generation. They thought giving out condoms in High Schools would make the problem go away. However, it has only got worse. Why would we use the failed approach to fix the same problem?

Giving young people the idea that sex is just the colliding of bodies and the exchange of bodily fluids is where I believe the problem lies. I am ashamed that my government would put forward the idea that giving young people, who are sometimes unable to manage their emotions, condoms to engage in 'adult' behaviour is the answer to our social problems.

I would like to propose that our government try a full, uncompromising abstinence approach that preaches self-worth and self-esteem. A strategy which forces young people to recognise that their esteem is not in sex, which they equate with love, and because they are valuable, they can withhold from casual sexual relations until they find someone who really loves them and recognises their value.

I dare the government to raise the standard without a 'lesser' condom option. I dare them to take a stand for purity.

I am, etc.,

DAYNEA BOWES

deebuz412@hotmail.com