A group of teenagers have taken on the task of teaching their peers about sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and AIDS.

It has been proven that Bermuda's young people still feel those types of diseases are only for "the older folks'' and does not concern them.

Hence, the formation of the Peer Education Programme aimed at training and teaching young people (peer education leaders) between the ages of 13-years-old and 18 about sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and AIDS.

The programme was the brainchild of Marylou Belvin who believed that this was the best way to reach young people.

"As a result of the survey that we did on young people in January we realised that although they were getting the basic HIV/AIDS education in school there was a need for one-on-one conversation because they didn't like to ask questions of teachers or of other adults,'' Mrs. Belvin said.

She added: "They had the basic education when they were asked if they were sexually active. The next question was what kind of protection do you use and the answer to the majority of the questions was` `I don't'.

"I guess that was really when I realised that when kids talk to kids the message would get across more rapidly.'' Mrs. Belvin also said that by the end of the school year the programme will have trained resource persons in every secondary school resulting in the students having someone to turn to.

"The big picture really is this is not only HIV/AIDS education but information about relationships, other sexually transmitted diseases and generally increasing their self-esteem.

"The peer educators started out as shy young women and once they realised the amount of information they would have at the end of the programme, that would be beneficial to their friends and peers they became very enthusiastic.'' Nurse epidemiologist Rhonda Daniels said there are two groups -- the first group started training on July 7 this year and the second group started about four weeks ago.

"This whole programme falls under the education programme of the Allan Vincent Smith Foundation. So far we have eight young ladies between the ages of 14 and 16 and they represent Warwick Academy, Saltus, Cedarbridge and Berkeley Institute,'' Miss Daniels said.

She added that the ultimate purpose is for these young women to teach their peers about safe relationships, how to communicate and how to be comfortable with what decisions they have made regarding sexual activity.

"But the main purpose is to promote abstinence and delay or postpone sexual activity.

"That is important because teens are the generation most at risk basically because they think it can never happen to them and this is the perception of our young ladies.'' Miss Daniels also said these young peers want to be effective in minimising the spread of STD's including HIV.

"They have a training manual divided into four modules which was put together by Marylou Belvin and myself.

"The first module deals with common sexually transmitted diseases, the second deals with HIV on its own, the third deals with making wise decisions, how to communicate, and how to avoid situations where you may be pressured into having sex and the fourth deals with things such as sensitivity issues in regard to HIV and AIDS -- dealing with specific audiences and presentations skills ie. church groups, primary school kids, or other youth groups.'' It is a 16-week training programme. The older students meet on Mondays and the second group meets on Thursdays.

"This is not just for young women -- we would like to see males become involved as well in the peer groups because we need males to relate to males as well,'' Miss Daniels said.

She added: "It has been proven that teens learn from teens and plus we are also trying to increase the awareness that this disease does not just affect older people but also younger people.

"Even though our HIV and AIDS statistics does not reflect that at this time it is quite possible that we do have teens infected with HIV and we are not seeing it because they are not requesting testing.'' Miss Daniels also said the parents of the peer educators have been very supportive of this programme.

Sixteen-year-old peer educator Cathryn McGarey of Saltus was in the first group that was trained. She has since spoken at the Youth to Youth conference with other peer educators.

"So far we have had a good response. It is because we are coming from their age group and we are on the same wavelength. We were saying what our peers are thinking,'' Cathryn said.

She added: "I think, to a certain extent, that we can get through to them but one thing we found is that it is hard to keep their attention.

"I wanted to do this because of the fact that HIV and AIDS is a disease that does not have to be spread and it is killing so many people. People are becoming sexually active so young nowadays and they are just not protecting themselves from the disease.'' Fourteen-year-old Allana Bean of Berkeley Institute said she wanted to be in the programme to learn more about AIDS/HIV.

"I think we will be able to reach our peers because we are all teens. I want to learn more about this disease because more kids are having intercourse early and I feel its better to learn about this early.''