[Marxism] A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann

[Walter Lippmann]

(Cuba has the lowest HIV-AIDS rate on the planet, but the island's
authorities aren't taking anything for granted. Safer sex programs
are active all over Cuba. Their tone is a sex-positive, joyous and
completely non-judgemental one. Given the bad rap Cuba has gotten
for its treatment of gays in the past, the completely matter-of-
fact way men who have sex with other men are included among those
for home programs have been designed and carried out gives us yet
another way to measure the radical difference between the way the
AIDS crisis is dealt with in Cuba and in the United States where
such articles as this would not come out of the U.S. government.
Indeed, Washington tries to impose its fundamentalist Christian
world views on every other country where it's supposedly giving
assistance for programs against HIV-AIDS.)
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TRABAJADORES
August 7, 2006

Preventing HIV/AIDS infection: condoms are not the only choice
CARMEN R. ALFONSO
salud at trabaja.cip.cu
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs981.html
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann

A campaign set in motion this summer by the Ministry of Public
Health's Center for Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases
(STDs) and HIV/AIDS is focused on teenagers and young people immersed
in making the most of their vacation and leisure time in recreational
activities and thus bound to become more active in the sexual
relations department.

The moment is ripe for Center specialist Lic. Isabel "Chabela"' Duque
Santana to take a deeper look into the available means you can use to
avoid acquiring an STD and still enjoy the experience.

These months many young students and workers are taking time off from
their everyday obligations and spend time in recreational centers
where they make more friends and find more sexual partners. This year
our motto is Break the ice with your own hands, aimed at making
communication more fluent. You have to talk to your partner about
wearing a condom as a key preventive measure. Yet, that's by no means
the only way to prevent STDs and HIV/AIDS...

LATER AND SAFER

"Teenagers can resort to other, very effective methods, like
postponing your first experience of sex or practicing safe sex
(petting, mutual masturbation...), where no bodily fluids (semen or
vaginal secretions) are exchanged and infections are therefore
avoided. By so doing you can feel pleasure, give love, and prevent
infection for good measure.

"Given these choices, not having a condom at hand is not a reason to
get it on without protection. Look, a young man determined to go for
it in the crunch even if there's not a condom within his reach can
always choose safe sex as a strategy to ward off STDs".

A HEALTHY BREAK

The summer campaign topic bounces back, and "Chabela" insists that,
while on vacation, recreation and joy should never preclude taking
care of your health.

"Any step to keep STDs at bay is extremely important so that our
break can be truly free of risks and we go back to school or work as
healthy as we can be to go on life. Our purpose is making young
people aware of their need to protect themselves and know what to do
in certain situations to stay out of danger's way.

"During the summer campaigns, health experts and many other
volunteers from our Center go to great lengths to score a bull's-eye
on youth and people in general with our preventive messages.

"We have the Carrito por la Vida (Little Car For Life) which drops by
camping sites, beaches, night parties, the Malecón (Havana's seawall
avenue) and wherever young people hang around in great numbers.

"Women from our Center who are involved in the so-called
teenager-oriented S.COM project also take part by promoting a
responsible sexuality ("S" for sexuality and solidarity and "COM" for
communication and comprensión (understanding); there's the Café Salud
(Health Café) and the HSH projects (hombre-sexo-hombre), on men who
have sex with other men, to name a few.

"The promoters are by and large volunteer young men and women
organized in very strong and active task force engaged in this
significant work. With these projects we do our bit in every
health-prevention campaigns."