ELM making a difference within the youth community |03 August 2015
The Everlasting Love Ministry (ELM) will be launching a pilot project of setting up ‘Smart Clubs’ in secondary schools starting next term with Belonie secondary.
The aim of the project is to mentor youths who have made the choice to abstain from sexual intercourse in a prior project called ‘Prevention is better than cure’ launched in 2013. All of these programmes are being facilitated by ELM members and other partners.
In an interview with Seychelles NATION, the chairman of ELM Jude Fred said that the project ‘Prevention is better than cure’ was an initiative of the ELM towards secondary students who are at risk from teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
“Statistics have shown that there has been an increase in abortion, teenage pregnancy, HIV and Aids cases, and now it is still on the rise,” he said.
“We felt that the youths had a lack of concentration, and as a result their educational performances were being lowered,” he added.
One of ELM’s objectives is to turn the youths away from negative lifestyles, by providing them with an alternative.
The aim was to promote abstinence as the best choice and that true love waits. He said that to bring awareness and educate the youth, ELM provided them with another alternative and asked them to remain pure, even if they had already had sexual encounters.
“There is a way to begin a new life so that you can stay pure until you find the right person to get married to in the future,” he added.
He also noted his appreciation towards the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Ministry of Health for starting a campaign entitled ‘No sex now, studies come first’, which shows that the project had a positive effect nationally.
Although with all the criticisms buzzing around, ELM decided to once again conduct a second phase of the project in 2014.
During 2014, ELM decided to strengthen the project by choosing five secondary schools; Belonie, Pointe Larue and Anse Royale on Mahé, one on Praslin and the other on La Digue. Part of the project was geared towards the World Aids Day activity.
The project was funded by the National Aids Council and Mr Fred feels that if this project is well supported financially it could make a better impact among the students.
All schools have issues but according to the budget they could only choose schools that ELM was already working with.
He explained that in two schools that they conducted the session some of the students claimed they have kept their promises they made the year before. Their promises were to abstain from sexual relationship and concentrate on their education. Therefore they received a certificate to take home with them as a reminder of their commitment.
As an activity during these sessions, a ‘toothbrush theory’ is used whereby two toothbrushes are presented to the students, one has been used and the other is still packed. They are asked: ‘Which one will you use?’
A spiritual aspect is incorporated in this programme to make the students understand that from whatever denomination they are from, they need God to keep their promise.
ELM plans to make ‘Prevention is better than cure’ an annual project to be launched towards the end of November to mark World Aids Day which is celebrated on December 1.
“For 2015 the programme will be amplified so that more students in secondary school will benefit from it, as since over the past few months we have noticed a considerable increase in teenage pregnancies.”
The ‘Smart Club’ will be a follow up of the project mentioned above to know if they did not break their commitment, mainly for students from secondary one and two.
This mentorship programme will also enable the development of other skills that will enable them to overcome the challenges they face in life as a student, and promote the alternative lifestyle.