Study on sex workers in Barbados, Jamaica

NASSAU, Bahamas – A scientific study that looked at behaviour change interventions among sex and tourism workers has been presented to a Caribbean HIV-AIDS conference here.The study by the Caribbean HIV&AIDS Alliance (CHAA) on “HIV and AIDS Responsible Tourism Model” was done in Barbados and Jamaica and focused on accelerating the private sector response to HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean.CHAA’s Jamaica-Director of Programmes, Dr. Denise Chevannes-Vogel, who presented the study to the 2011 Caribbean HIV conference that opened here Friday, said she was pleased with the response from the various stakeholders assembled here.“Policy makers and programme managers within the tourism sector will benefit tremendously from the toolkits, particularly, the compendium of best practices since it provides a strong model of approach from organisations and individuals affected by the Responsible Tourism project,” she said.The Tourism Model project, funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) was done in Barbados and Jamaica and comprised various behaviour change interventions conducted among key populations such as sex workers, men who have sex with men and tourism workers. The pilot project manifests itself in the form of toolkits.“The organisations which participated in the project were involved in various interventions which focussed on way of including the formal tourism sector such as hotels, tour guides and informal tourism section such as beach boys, taxi drivers, life guards and vendors”.CHAA said the interventions included workplace policies and programme development; behaviour change communication; reduction of stigma and discrimination; advocacy to institutional capacity building as well as the promotion of voluntary counselling and testing especially among marginalised groups working in the tourism sector.The CHAA said that the study also concluded that it is necessary to pay attention to poverty and the additional vulnerability of sex workers who work from the streets compared t0i formal establishments and that partnerships with the tourism private sector are vital in order to sensitise them to issues of human rights and HIV related stigma and discrimination.It also noted that interventions that bridge the gap between vulnerable groups and the tourism locales in which they are located are necessary so as to reduce the HIV vulnerability of the locale and that gender empowerment, with particular attention to sexual and reproductive health rights, is important for services at traditional health service delivery points. (CMC)