Family Life Educator at the Dominica Planned Parenthood Association, Annie St. Luce, is encouraging students from the Isaiah Thomas Secondary School (ITSS) to love themselves.
St. Luce was speaking at the institution’s Health Fair held on Wednesday.
“Enough young people are not spending time loving themselves,” she said. “Most times we get so busy that we engage in relationships because our friend is in a relationship. Sometimes we don’t even like the boy, we don’t even like much about him, but because he is the popular boy in school or because he pressured us or because that girl stands out in class and we really like her and we think that we should be with her, and because sex is the in thing, that we should take part of it and we take very little time loving ourselves.”
She called on the young people to find out who they are, what makes them tick, what are the things that they like and want to do.
“When you have done that and you have embraced yourself, there is so much more that you can give to others because you love yourself. If you cannot love yourself then you cannot give back because you have nothing really to give back,” she pointed out.
It is her hope, St. Luce noted, that the student utilize opportunities to “just embrace yourself as a person, as a sexual being” and learn that “you don’t have to be like everyone else.”
“You don’t have to post those twerking videos, you don’t have to let anyone film you naked, you don’t have to post photographs of yourself on Facebook because you value yourself, there is much more to you than those little things,” she stated. “Too many times we hear of video circulating. That should not be you, don’t let it be you.”
She urged them to stay away from alcohol and drugs which could eventually lead to reckless sexual behaviors.
St. Luce also advised the youth to delay sexual activities.
“Whenever you become sexually active, it becomes a full time job and that why I always say young people should delay sexual activity because when you balancing school and sex, it doesn’t work. There’s a lot that you need to do,” she pointed out. “You need to check yourself, you need to get your pap smear done, you have to ensure that you visit the clinic regularly and so on.”
I have a few concerns about Annie St. Luce’s presentation to the children at Isaiah Thomas Secondary School.
Ms. St. Luce used her time well to warn the young people about the dangers of allowing anybody to film or photo them naked, or allow intimate pictures of themselves to be posted on social media. Cautioning the kids about the use of alcohol and drugs is certainly appropriate.
However, to tell young people to “delay” sexual activity until they have time to check themselves out, have pap smears done, and visit the clinic regularly, is not good enough in a country where 50% of the babies are born to unwed mothers.
They should be taught God’s moral code as it is found in the New Testament. Sex outside marriage is a serious sin the Bible calls “fornication”. It is forbidden in 1 Corinthians 6:9,10, and vs. 18, Galatians 5:19-21, Jude vs. 7, and many other scriptures.
Wrong is wrong . There are no gray areas.
Sincerely, Rev. Donald Hill. International…
I totally agree with what this lady is doing, that is part of the foundation of our humanity. the first part i would say is to know God, to know God is to know Self, because he has put in us all of his Qualities, what we need to do is mine it out of our selves.
One of the gravest handicaps among us as a people is that there is no love for self, nor love for his or her own kind. This not having love for self is the root cause of hate ( dislike ), disunity, disagreement, betraying, and fighting and killing one another. How can you be loved, if you have no love for self.
Then from loving ones self you have to know yourself, know what you want to be in life, as a man what do you want out of life, it has to be your choice, as a young women what are you studying to be when you leave school, it has too be your choice not your friends choice.
When you love self, you watch what you put into your body, you try too eat the right foods. Love for self is both for young and old. Peace one…