If I kept it to myself - World YWCA

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If I kept it to myself an interactive website (http://youth.aids2006.org) and working on post-conference follow up plans. GYCA now has a North Secretariat based in New York by the United Nations at the Global Youth Action Network, and a South Secretariat based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, at Development Partnership International. GYCA contributed to the youth programme at the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa, held in Abuja, Nigeria, in December 2005. At the Conference I connected with hundreds of motivated and inspiring young people and was able to see how much potential GYCA has to build new leadership. We are offering 3 free e-courses to young people who apply on Project Management, Grant Proposal Writing and Fundraising, and Political Advocacy. Each course culminates in a nationallevel project or campaign that GYCA staff (there are now six full time staff members and two interns) help to implement, monitor and evaluate. GYCA’s 12 2006 Regional Focal Points are continuing the mapping and global networking process, and are in the process of choosing National Coordinators, further building our infrastructure. They are holding local gatherings this summer to involve young people working on HIV and AIDS at the grassroots level who may not have access to Internet. GYCA is also coordinating a Youth Summit with Advocates for Youth and UNFPA for the UNGASS +5 AIDS 2006 Review Meeting at the UN. 60 young people from all over the world, some of whom are writing national youth shadow reports on their governments’ progress in achieving UNGASS targets for youth, will come together for an advocacy training and participate in many events at the UN Secretariat in New York. Five GYCA members are currently official youth delegates of their governments for this meeting. To supplement these efforts we have been lobbying country missions to ensure that young people and sexual and reproductive health are included in their statements and in their negotiations on the outcome document of the meeting. At the ground level GYCA has helped scale up several projects, most notably a campaign in Egypt where GYCA members have teamed up with the National Democratic Party to initiate a campaign against Female Genital Mutilation. GYCA is currently holding and contributing to trainings for young leaders in Poland and in Trinidad & Tobago. We continue to grow at a rapid pace and I feel that we are truly capable of opening doors for young leaders to realize their ambitions and to become legitimate actors in response to HIV and AIDS. 70 Born: 1982 Country: United States of America Organisations: Global Youth Coalition on HIV and AIDS, Student Global AIDS Campaign, Columbia Global Justice (CGJ), Global Youth Partners Initiative (GYP), Oxfam International Youth Parliament (IYP) Campaigns for: assisting young people to effectively drive grassroots initiatives change in their communities, using ICTs
Young women intervene in a world with AIDS Felicita Hikuam It was enraging to me that the world continues to move on while millions of productive Africans and young people around the world die from a preventable illness, and one that can be treated to ensure a longer productive life!. I can remember being around 11 years old in the late ‘80s when the first cases of HIV were registered in Namibia and my mother was talking about colleagues who were diagnosed as living with HIV. Fear tactics were the order of the day for HIV campaigning and my mother’s way of explaining HIV to us was bringing home a book of people with STIs and dying of AIDS-related illnesses: These images are still quite vivid in my mind. I had known about HIV in our community since I was a girl; however by the time I was a young woman and returned to Namibia after my studies abroad, the pandemic was hitting much closer to home. Over the past five years I’ve buried many of my relatives due to AIDS-related death and am increasingly dealing with the effects of HIV on my life and my family’s livelihood. I work in HIV not because it is helping ‘the beneficiaries’, but because I am living with HIV in my family. It is my reality and not something out there somewhere affecting other people, but right here with me every day. I decided to go into the communications field, and particularly development communication, because, from a very young age, I was aware of the power of information in transforming people’s lives. I realised that to contribute to the overall development of my country I had to work in a field that I was passionate about and use my communication skills to contribute to the response to a disease that was negating our development and affecting me so personally. One of the most moving experiences with HIV in my career was on my first field trip to a home based care project run by the Namibian Red Cross in the north of Namibia. On the second day of the trip we had the opportunity to accompany a care facilitator on her visit to one of her ‘clients’, an 18 year old woman living with HIV. This young woman was bedridden with an AIDS related illness. She could not visit the toilet or wash herself and was relying heavily on the support of the care facilitator and her family. I saw humanity working first hand through this Red Cross volunteer to protect the dignity of this young woman. It was enraging to me that the world continues to move on while millions of productive Africans and young people around the world die from a preventable illness, and one that can be treated to ensure a longer productive life! This experience fuelled my resolve to contribute in some way to the empowerment of women and young people who might not be living with HIV yet, but also to protect the dignity and human rights of those who are living with HIV. 71
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If I kept it to myself - World YWCA

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