Seanad debates
Wednesday, 26 November 2003
Overseas Development Aid: Motion.
When I was promoting adolescent sexual rights, people did not think I was doing so to encourage adolescents to have sex. I was trying to promote the concept that they should be given an understanding that they were not obliged to have sex with older people. This is a big problem in Africa. The Minister will have been told by people in Africa about the sugar daddies and so forth who approach schoolgirls and tell them they will pay for their uniforms, their school fees etc., if they will have sex with them. This, unfortunately, is how the infection is spread. Unless women in these countries are somehow shown that they have the power to say "no" to sex and the traditional practices which are extremely dangerous and must be changed, we will face an uphill task.
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