GENERAL FEATURES
SHAG Week
Union of Students Ireland will launch it's annual SHAG Week on Monday February 8th at 1pm in DIT Bolton Street.
USI
President, Peter Mannion, will officially launch this year’s campaign,
the motto of which is “Whoever You Like, Love Safer Sex”.
Being
showcased at the launch, will be three sexual health awareness video
advertisements, which were put together by audio-visual students at the Instituteof Technology Tallaght, especially for the campaign.
The world’s only sexual health magician, who has performed in colleges all over Ireland in recent years, will also perform at the event. This will bring a humorous but serious message to students about sexual.
The focus of the campaign this year will be encouraging students to open sexual disccusions.
USI will be distributing 45,000 sexual health awareness packs across the country.
Each
SHAG pack has a condom and information on contraception from
thinkcontraception.ie, Durex and the Irish Family Planning Association.
All
the information provided aims to help students have safer sex and make
informed decisions regarding their contraceptive choices.
Peter Mannion said: “Taking
steps to maintain sexual health is what SHAG Week is all about.
Colleges across the country will experience an influx of SHAG packs,
which will hopefully encourage the student population to talk frankly
about safe sex.
The
organisations that work together with USI to make SHAG Week possible
all agree that students must become more educated in terms of sexual
health and issues relating to practising safer sex.
With USI celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this
year, we note how far we as a society have come in terms of promoting
safer sex. Various USI officers were even arrested for distributing
condoms during the seventies and early eighties.
Though society has
become more open, and the role of contraception is now discussed more
freely, we still need to ensure that students understand the risks
associated with unsafe sex.”
USI Welfare Officer, Ciaran Fitzpatrick, said: “Sexual
health is an integral part of student health. There has been a dramatic
rise in the numbers of Sexually Transmitted Infections reported in Ireland. By running this campaign, USI want to encourage students to talk about their sexual health.
There
still seems to be a taboo when it comes to talking about sex related
issues. We want to break through these barriers and encourage people to
practice safer sex and to look after their sexual health by getting
screened for STIs.”