Ross Taylor Supports HIV/AIDS partnership

Ross Taylor meets young people from Antigua as part of the ICC's partnership with UNAIDS and UNICEF © UNICEF/Dabney/2007

As the New Zealand team prepared for their opening Super Eight match, Ross Taylor visited youth on the island involved in the UNICEF-sponsored Health and Family Life Education programme.

Taylor's visit was organised as part of the alliance between the International Cricket Council (ICC), UNAIDS, UNICEF and the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS to raise awareness of the situation of children and young people affected by HIV. Sixteen year-old Trisan Hylton, a student at the T.N. Kirnon School, was one of those who had an opportunity to interact with the 23-year old Taylor.

"Mr. Taylor is the superstar, but today I felt like a star," said Hylton while joining in a pickup game of cricket with Taylor on the YMCA's basketball court. "It was so special for him to come out here and talk to us about his life and how hard he worked and how much he sacrificed to become a cricketer. I'm glad that I was able to talk to him and that he shared some positive things with us about preventing HIV and how to get ahead in life."

Taylor, normally the number three batsman on the New Zealand side, is out of the lineup for the immediate future with a tear to his hamstring that he incurred during a Group Stage match. But the youngest member of the New Zealand side was visibly moved by his visit with the youth of Antigua.

Ross Taylor bowls to children at a school at Antigua as part of a visit to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS © UNICEF/Dabney/2007

"It was really good for me to interact with the children and to share with them some of the facts about preventing the spread of HIV," Taylor said as he concluded his visit on Monday. "As the youngest member on the team, I think that the feeling was that I was close enough in age to these kids that I could relate to them in a real way. I was especially glad to hear that they have gotten a pretty good grounding in how to keep themselves safe and also that so many of them expressed some very positive life goals that they are working towards."

Elaine King, UNICEF Health Education Specialist for the Eastern Caribbean, explained that her agency works with educators in Antigua to make sure that appropriate HIV education is included in the lives of young people. "Through the Health and Family Life Education programme, UNICEF works with teachers in Antigua to provide a holistic range of topics to the children that help not only with building their skills, but with building their self-esteem. "When children have a poor self image," she said, "it affects their decision-making and negotiating skills, and how they deal with peer pressure on issues concerning their sexuality - as well as other social issues such as violence and drug abuse."