All I can say tis very sick.Besides I would suspect that the virgins may not be as bright as the non-virgins.

"...Incentives to girls who remain pure"? What's up with that, Broadsheet? Gotta keep an eye on anachronistic language, you know.

I mean what's fair is fair, right?

I didn't get laid in high school, where's my scholorship?

But I can understand their desperation. This is a country a million times poorer than ours, with much less resources. If we have a hard time solving the epidemic of young kids getting pregnant and stds, imagine what it must seam like to them to watch their youth not merely get pregnant but dying of AIDS as well.

They're doing this so they know where all the young valuable virgins are. They plan to sell them to the highest bidder I bet.

Why no scholarships for young women who get AIDS?

I mean what's fair is fair, right?

I know you are being cute but the reason is tragic and the only choice Sierra Leone has. Sierra Leone is one of the poorest if not the poorest nation in the world, we are talking Hatti levels of despair would be a major improvement, that has basically lost 2 generations to civil war. A young AIDS patient there will be dead by the time they are 25. The country can not afford to educate AIDS patients since they do not have the money to waste (I hate to use that word here but that is what it is) on a person that will not be alive to give back to society the cost of the education.

The saddest part though, is there is nothing that can realistically be done about this even if we sent an army of doctors and the drug companies gave away the AIDS cocktails.

I lived in nearly next door Cote d'Ivoire for a while. The issue is, how do you actually push down the AIDS rate when all else has failed. It's at least a start, isn't it? Pay people to ensure their own sexual health when no other method appears to work.

So what about the young women who are raped by friends, family members etc. who believe having sex with a virgin will cure them? First, the women's innocence is violated and taken, then their chance for a better education (which in turn, may help them come to terms with their assault)?

It is extremely hard to prove physical virginity in the human female: the hymen can be broken by means other than sexual intercourse. According to the Catholic Church, rape victims or survivors of childhood sexual abuse can be considered virgins if they never had consensual sexual intercourse. Virginity is not in the possession of a hymen, but of the will to remain "pure", even after being forcibly violated.

Also, it would help if similar scholarships were available to male virgins. I realize that it would be impossible to prove whether a boy is a virgin or not, but surely his word, his lifestyle and the testimony of his parents and friends would help to attest to his lack of sexual experience. Such testimony could be updated yearly or every few months, as each individual case suggests.

What I think is awful about the Sierra Leone plan is that young women who get pregnant would be encouraged to drop out of school. They, of all people, will need an education if they are to function effectively as adults. Part-time schooling adapted to the needs of young mothers would be useful here. I realize that that people in Africa who are sexually active at an early age are at a very high risk of getting AIDS, but if they survive past the age of 25, they will need to fend for themselves and their children in an extremely poor country. They will need all the help they can get.

Is it ok to pay for sex?

Is it ok to pay someone to not have sex at all?

I can respect someone who says yes to both or no to both, but I don't understand why one would be ok and not the other.

No harm no foul.

All I can say tis very sick.Besides I would suspect that the virgins may not be as bright as the non-virgins.

Are you saying that being raped makes 12 year old girls smarter?