Following the receipt of CDN $14,927 (EC$39,388.49) from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness and Youth Development in St Vincent and the Grenadines, JEMS will be hosting a few more workshops focusing on Edutainment and other awareness campaigns.{{more}} Their thrust is to bring together different elements of entertainment to educate others on the issues of HIV. The upcoming workshops will focus on how art, dance, drama and music can be used to impart knowledge to a wider cross section of the population. These workshops are follow-ups to the educational/life skills sessions conducted previously. They will adapt a hands-on approach.

“Our main objective is to train as many young people in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention techniques, so that they can take the information back to their communities and thus keep the information flowing. We wish most of all to see a change in risky behaviour amongst our young adults,” a release from JEMS said.

JEMS was awarded the funding in October 2011 to strengthen existing JEMS Youth Club Activities and to broaden its reach to other community groups interested in or currently working on HIV/AIDS initiatives.

The next workshop will be on Saturday, February 4 at The Knowledge Institute, located upstairs Aggies restaurant, opposite the Kingstown Post Office, starting at 9:00 am. Interested young persons age 15 to 19 are asked to contact Rosanna Leigertwood at (JEMS #531-5430) or Rhonda Lee at 496-4249 for more information.