If I kept it to myself - World YWCA

If I kept it to myself
Young Women intervening
in the World of AIDS
VISION
A world where young women are intervening
on HIV and AIDS at every level: educating
themselves, mobilising peers, preventing further
HIV infections, advocating for justice, equality
amongst men and women, caring for their
communities and pioneering change.
WHO
Young women, HIV positive and negative, from
all cultures, backgrounds and beliefs Everybody
is living with HIV and AIDS. It is all around us and
we cannot afford to keep it to ourselves.
HOW
• Safe spaces
• Mentoring and role models
• Peer education and training
• Volunteerism and leadership opportunities
• Capacity building
• Support and learning networks
• Documenting good practices
• Resource young women’s leadership.
It is only by having a safe space to express
oneself, to explore issues that are taboo, sensitive
or stigmatized, and transform the personal into
the political, that we create the breeding ground
for young women’s leadership. This leadership
can be fostered through mentors and role
models who inspire and motivate young women
to believe that we have the power and the ability
to be agents of change. Messages that speak the
language and reality of young people are essential
in motivating new generations to take leadership
in a world of AIDS, which means peer education
and training is crucial.
Once informed and inspired, young women
require space to grow into leaders through
volunteer and leadership opportunities in all
sectors of society. Young women also need and
want the skills to be effective leaders of change,
which makes capacity building essential. By
coming together and sharing knowledge, we
create support and learning networks that
are essential in building effective strategies and
leadership. Documenting effective programmes
and lessons learnt can help to inspire other
young women and enable good practices to be
replicated on a much larger scale. And most
96
importantly, we must resource young women’s
leadership as a clear and viable solution in the
response to HIV and AIDS.
An investment in young women’s leadership is an
investment in the future. In some countries young
women and girls make up almost 80% of new
HIV infections. For this reason young women’s
leadership in designing and implementing strategies
are essential. Young women know best about their
needs and through their existing peer networks have
the capacity to change the course of the pandemic.
WHAT
AIDS is calling for leadership, however there is
no one size fits all approach to developing this
leadership. To be effective agents of change,
leaders require a firm foundation in the prevention
and transmission of HIV and AIDS; project design
and implementation; fundraising; and organising
and mobilising others. Beyond this, various
skills and knowledge must be developed among
many people to provide leadership at different
levels. Some of these include: public speaking,
organisation development, writing, media,
facilitating, training, legal rights, gender equality
and human rights, counselling, negotiating safe
sex, behaviour change, project management,
home based care, organising people, policy
making, political leadership, positive living, income
generation and campaigning.
WHERE
Everywhere HIV and AIDS exists there is a place
for leadership
WHY
We cannot afford to be silent. The leadership of
young women is vital if we are to have any impact.
Through this book, personal experience has been a
primary motivator for young women’s leadership; in
many cases and particularly for young HIV positive
women, the experience of injustice, stigma and
discrimination has enabled leadership to emerge
out of suffering and desperation. Networks of
support have also been instrumental in motivating
leadership; and for some, faith has been a driving
force. Whatever the starting point, young women
have and will continue to intervene in the world of
AIDS because they realise that they must not keep
the reality of HIV and AIDS to themselves. Young
women have the power to change the face of AIDS.