A group of about 50 people took to the streets of Bridgetown today to walk for purity in acknowledgement of HIV/AIDS Awareness Week.
Bearing many placards promoting abstinence until marriage and preaching the VIP – Virginity is Possible – message, the group handed out fliers and placards on their way from Cheapside to Heroes Square in the City.
Maria Carter, one of the directors of the Pure Sex Centre, the organizer of the walk, said their main aim today was to sensitize the public, mainly young people, that no sex was safe sex.
“The walk today is sensitizing the general public. We want society to see that there is an answer besides telling our children to condomise, because we go into schools to talk about purity and we realize that a lot of our children are not told that purity is a possible option.
“As opposed to condomising, we are telling people that it is possible to maintain their virginity and we would say that this is the only [sure] way to prevent HIV/AIDS and other STDs,” Carter said.
She added that while it was important to preach about condomising, there still needed to be a focus on encouraging young people to keep their virginity until marriage.
“I think a lot of money is put behind condomising, but the same amount of money, time and effort should be put into teaching the purity message. We need to give them viable options.
“These children are buckling under peer pressure and we need to help them. There is another way and it has to be said,” she said passionately.
The group stopped in Heroes Square where they collected non-perishable items for the HIV/AIDS Food Bank. Members of the group also shared personal stories of abstinence and reasons for choosing to remain pure.
