If I kept it to myself - World YWCA

Young women intervene in a world with AIDS
Sibyl Olivera
... the only way to reach the community in an efficient
way is through the work of many people in an
organised way.
I am the daughter of a long serving member of the YWCA, so from my cradle I have been a part of
its activities and at the age of twelve I started to actively participate. As one of the first members of
YWCA La Banda, Santiago del Estero, I was selected to be a delegate to the Federation of YWCAs
in Argentina, and later, the youth vice-president. Currently, I am the youth coordinator of a project on
sexual and reproductive health and HIV and AIDS.
My parents are both doctors and since my teenage years, HIV and AIDS were words known to me.
However, what I thought I knew was completely different from reality. In the beginning, it was a disease
transmitted through sexual relations and related to homosexuals, and therefore posed no threat to my
family.
In 1990 at the age
of sixteen, I met Lisa
Martyn, a member
of the YWCA of
Brazil, who came
to La Banda to give
presentations in
secondary schools
about HIV and AIDS.
During that time,
every issue relating in
any way to sex was
raised. It was in these
discussions that I
learnt that AIDS was
not just of concern to
homosexuals; we are
all at risk of infection
if exposed to it,
including the rich, the
poor, homosexuals,
heterosexuals, men,
women, adults,
children and even
newborn babies.
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