|
|
 |
Winning quartet up for HIV/AIDS debate
Phumla Sekeleni. The Star, 16 September 2002. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
|
Their sassy strategy of debating real issues that affect the youth today has won four young KwaZulu-Natal pupils a chance to represent their province at the LoveLife Debating Games at national level.
Nontobeko Khumalo, Zakiyya Saib, Mbali Keswa and Joanne Naidoo, from Riverdene Secondary School in Newlands West, beat 34 other schools from the province at a debating meeting held in Richards Bay at the beginning of the month.
Now the four 15-year-old pupils are looking forward to the national competition, to be held in Durban at the end of this month, with a mixture of excitement and nervousness.
"I didn't even have experience about debating when we were given a topic one hour before the representations about whether drug testing and sex education should be allowed in schools," said Nontobeko.
"We asserted that when kids don't have much information about sex, they usually find themselves in trouble with teenage pregnancy and HIV/AIDS."
Keswa voiced her support of LoveLife's message of Delay, Reduce and Protect, saying it was immensely helpful, while Saib believed debating brought about new awareness levels.
The girls' debating coach, Molly Ramlachan, said young people usually displayed an attitude projecting the myth that pregnancies and diseases would not happen to them.
"Most teenagers divulge in sexual activities without thinking about the end results. Though we have an HIV/AIDS curriculum at the school, we have witnessed the consequences of teenage pregnancies. We want to dispel the myths, especially the one that claims if you have sex for the first time you will not get pregnant," she emphasised. |
| Was this article helpful to you? |
 ?100%???? ?0%
|
|
Back
|
|
|
|
