VOLUNTEER: Nikola Blumer of East Maitland will be part of the YEAH team who will promote safe sex at Groovin The Moo.
“I love safe sex” – this is the message 15,000 Groovin the Moo revellers will have written across their wristbands today.
It is the third year on the road with GTM for YEAH, a group that works with young people to promote great sex through safe sex.
YEAH is GTM’s national community sponsor and the tour offers the group a unique opportunity to connect with regional towns where it can be more difficult to gain information about safe sex on a social level.
About one in 20 young people have a sexually transmitted infection at any one time, a statistic that organisations such as YEAH hope to lower.
Nine YEAH volunteers from the Maitland and Newcastle area will lend a hand at GTM in Maitland today.
One of the volunteers is East Maitland teenager Nikola Blumer.
The 19-year-old believes it is important for young people to have peers to talk with them about sexual health and encourage them to practice safe sex, have regular health
checks and talk with their partners.
Ms Blumer came across YEAH at a Guides seminar, where she is a leader of the Junior Maitland branch and hopes to continue her work with the group.
YEAH CEO Alischa Ross said the volunteers were “a group of amazing people who have put their hand up to talk to their mates about safe sex”.
Ms Ross sees the work of the volunteers and peer education groups as only the beginning and believes change will happen locally.
YEAH can be found in the giant inflatable condom castle near the Triple J main stage. Volunteers will hand out pocket-sized referral cards with information about local sexual health clinics and where to get more information.
Check back here later today for live coverage of Groovin The Moo.