| Newsletter Issue: March 2008 |
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Welcome to the March Edition
of the Mexico City YouthForce Newsletter!
The Mexico YouthForce is gearing up for the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City next August. This newsletter will keep you informed and up to date with the conference, with a special focus relating to youth participation. This newsletter is where you can connect with other youth and organizations who share your interest and passion in combating HIV and AIDS. To find out more about the Mexico YouthForce and how you can get involved keep reading!
The Mexico YouthForce is comprised of 5 different organizations: Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Advocates for Youth, TakingITGlobal, Ave de Mexico, and Youth Coalition. The Mexico City YouthForce recognizes the importance of meaningful youth participation during the International AIDS Conference in Mexico 2008 and beyond. |
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| Speakers Corner |
Youth Profile
"Youth and AIDS in Rwanda and my motivation to participate in Mexico International Conference on HIV/AIDS"
Jean Claude Dusingize, Rwanda
Article By Jean Claude Dusingize, the RFP for GYCA-Central Africa."
My name is Jean Claude Dusingize I am 27 and I come from Rwanda. In Rwanda, HIV prevalence among youth age 15-24 is estimated at 1.0 percent. This figure varies from 1.5 percent among women to 0.4 percent among men, which gives a ratio of infection of 3.8 between women and men. The country proportion of young people age 15 to 24 who have a comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS is only 51 percent of young women and 54 percent of young men are shown to have a comprehensive knowledge of the means of prevention and transmission of HIV/AIDS. Like adults, young people in urban areas (63 percent of women, 59 percent of men) are more likely to have comprehensive knowledge of AIDS than those in rural areas (48 percent of women, 53 percent of men).(Rwanda DHS 2005).
I have been working as a peer educator helping my peers, especially young people who live in rural areas, to have access to updated information related to HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. I have been advocating the role of poverty reduction as a tool to fight against HIV/AIDS in rural settings by helping young people to create their own income generating projects. Currently, I am serving as the Regional Focal Point for Central Africa for Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (www.youthaidscoalition.org).
My duties include building in my region our Global Directory of youth HIV/AIDS interventions worldwide and connecting initiatives to each other, to NGOs working locally, to the government, and to the United Nations for support and to create sustainable partnerships.
I hope that participating in the coming Mexico 17th International Conference on HIV/AIDS, will help me to further my work because this conference will be a wonderful skills and capacity building opportunity and a chance to network with key funders, to interact with researchers and clinical investigators in the field of HIV/AIDS and I hope to meet people from different cultures and to discuss with them about different strategies to respond to HIV/AIDS in our respective countries and an opportunity to have the issues facing my community heard about in the international arena and I will bring back expertise and contacts to my organization after the conference. In general I will become more professional and more efficient to respond to the need of young people in my community.
Attending conferences helped me to be more self-confident, to be able to talk to the policy makers to understand different issues that our community is facing today and helped me to get in contact with different stakeholders that are working in the field of HIV/AIDS worldwide. |
| Meet your Subcommittees |
A Message from the MYF Subcommittees
This year the Youthforce has created 6 subcommittees that will help with specific tasks for the youth activities of the International AIDS Conference. To learn more about the sub committees keep reading!
Reception/Affiliated Events
The Youth Opening and Reception is the official event welcoming young people to the International AIDS Conference. It emphasises and recognises the importance of youth leadership in the global response to HIV and AIDS. The Mexico Youth Force Reception Subcommittee is responsible for planning this event and we are happy to announce that we are officially up and running!
The Reception subcommittee is co-chaired by Susan van Esch, Dance4Life International, and Claudia Ahumada, World AIDS Campaign. We have 9 members, out of which 7 are young people, and all work in the field of HIV and AIDS. In addition, we come from a variety of networks and organisations, as well as regions.
Pre-Conference
The pre-conference subcommittee, formed of 12 members from Mexico, the United States, Canada, Kenya, India, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua, is hard at work planning the Mexico Youth Force pre-conference, which will be held for 250 young people from July 31st to August 2nd. The pre-conference aims to provide skills-building and technical information, in order to make young participants at AIDS2008 better able to advocate around youth and HIV at the conference and when they return home.
At present, the Mexican members of the subcommittee are hard at work finding an appropriate venue and accommodations. In addition, the whole group is creating a work plan and discussing what sessions are integral to the pre-conference program. Later this spring, applications for attending the pre-conference and applications for presenting a sessions will be disseminated through email and on the AIDS2008 youth website. Stay posted for that information; and we hope to see you on August 31st!
Advocacy
The Advocacy sub-committee came together for its first meeting this past month and is preparing to launch the Take Two to Mexico (TT2M) campaign this coming week. We have drafted a letter to be distributed to NGOs and government agencies around the world encouraging them to sponsor young people to attend AIDS2008. This letter can also be used by young people in order to fundraise and petition NGOs in their country to facilitate their attendance at the conference. We hope that this campaign will build off of the successes of the Take Two to Toronto (TT2T) campaign for AIDS2006 which resulted in 118 youth scholarships.
From March 3-21, 2008 the Advocacy sub-committee will undertake its e-consultation for AIDS2008. The e-consultation seeks to gather recommendations for the MYF's advocacy message, strategy, and materials from both young people who will and will not be attending the conference. Participants will also be asked to consult with their peers who do not have access to internet to include their opinions on what issues need to be included. The advocacy messages will form the basis of a youth visibility campaign with posters, stickers, t-shirts, conference sessions, and pre-conference advocacy training.
To participate in this 3-week long e-consultation process please sign up at this address: http://groups.takingitglobal.org/MYF08consult.
You need to make an account on TakingITGlobal to participate.
Media/Communications
The Media and Communications subcommittee is excited to keep you informed and connected with the International AIDS Conference through the podcasts, blogs and this newsletter! The committee is comprised of members hailing from all over the globe from countries including Canada, USA, Russia, Ghana, UK Columbia, Nicaragua and Jamaica.
Working with TakingITGlobal, one of our major responsibilities is creating and maintaining the YouthForce official website that has now been launched! We are very excited for its launch and invite you to visit www.youthaids2008.org to check it out!
We are looking forward to connecting with media, journalists and youth in the near future and bringing you updates about press conferences during the conference.
Main Conference
As part of a comprehensive strategy to foster young delegates¡¯ meaningful participation within AIDS 2008, the Mexico YouthForce Main Conference Subcommittee aims to strengthen the participation of young people and the profile of youth issues in AIDS 2008. In the build up to AIDS 2008, we will coordinate an Orientation Group, assist with navigation around the Conference, connect delegates, work with youth speakers, engage with the scientific program, and publicize youth-focused sessions, among other tasks.
The Main Conference Subcommittee is composed of 9 individuals from all around the world, including Chile, Dominican Republic, Canada, Venezula, Turkey, China and Thailand.
Pavilion
The youth pavilion sub-committee's introductory meeting was held on Wednesday, February 20th, where we discussed timelines and brain stormed ideas of the usuage of space at the conference.The new co-chair of the sub-committee is Caitlin Padgett who serves as the coordinator for the International Youth Network for Harm Reduction. The Pavilion subcommittee is excited to be organizing, scheduling and designing the program. The subcommittee members are: Godfrey Mungazi, Tinna Ezekiel, Salma Ismail, An Jing, Nthazie Nalungwe, Christabel Atieno Opudo, Nick Carkner, Ahmed Malah, Mingrui Li, Muhammad Imran Shahid, Kyla Zinardi, Karol Andrea Garcia Buitrago, Corina Martinez Sanchez, Rosario Velasquez, Bessy Carmina Pineda, Todd Murray, Diego Cal, Amirreza Moradi and Jose Antonio Ruiz Hernandez.
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| Hello my name is... |
Claudia Ahumada, a Chilean activist (http://profiles.takingitglobal.org/ycclaudia) is now working for the World AIDS Campaign (http://www.worldaidscampaign.info/), as the Youth Campaigns Coordinator. Claudia is 26-years-old and has been working on sexual and reproductive rights issues, including HIV and AIDS, since she was 16. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights. In addition, she co-authored a booklet called ¡°Making the Linkages: HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Rights¡±.
As Youth Campaigns Coordinator, Claudia will provide support around international HIV and AIDS events, such as for the Mexico City YouthForce, facilitate and contribute to the creation of stronger linkages amongst youth organisations and networks, support youth leadership and youth Universal Access campaigns, as well as assist in fundraising initiatives.
Currently, Claudia is the co-chair of the Reception and Main Conference sub-committees of the Mexico City YouthForce.
If you would like to learn more about this, please email Claudia at ahumadac@worldaidscampaign.org
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| Get Involved |
Check out the YouthForce Website at www.youthaids2008.org
The YouthForce web site is now up and running. Learn more about how you can get involved before, during, and after the Conference!
Become a fan of the YouthForce on Facebook!
You also can become a fan of the Mexico YouthForce on Facebook. Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/YouthForce/8802473399 and become a fan now!
Submit Your Artwork!
Artwork has a way of expressing thoughts, feelings and beliefs that simply cannot be captured into words. It has the ability to transcend language barriers and touch a soul. The Mexico YouthForce has started a Global Gallery Collection on TakingITGlobal (www.TakingITGlobal.org) and would like to invite you to submit your artwork on what HIV/AIDS means to you and your community. To view the collection please visit http://www.tigurl.org/hivaidsgg.
To submit your work please visit here.
Presenting the Mexico City Youth Partnerships Initiative!
Throughout the upcoming 2008 International AIDS Conference, the World AIDS Campaign (WAC), and the Mexico Youth Force, will implement the Mexico City Youth Partnership Initiative (YPI). The YPI will pair youth leaders with established leaders of a wide-range of constituencies, in order for youth to develop practical leadership skills experientially, as well as for the constituencies to learn from youth leaders and develop partnerships with youth as a constituency. Through a two-way learning process, the YPI will promote mutual understanding, facilitate networking, and enable a transfer of knowledge and skills between participants.
Through its Global Steering Committee (GSC), the WAC will identify and encourage leaders from the constituencies of media, people living with HIV and AIDS, business, women, non-governmental organisations, youth, activists, faith and labour, to take part in this initiative. In addition, leaders from academia, parliamentarians, harm reduction and MSM will be engaged.
If you would like to learn more about this initiative, please get in touch with Claudia Ahumada, at ahumadac@worldaidscampaign.org
Help create Advocacy Messages for AIDS2008
The Mexico YouthForce has started to develop advocacy messages and a visibility strategy for AIDS2008 and want to hear from you! If you want to be part of creating significant messages then join the e-consultation group by signing up at http://groups.takingitglobal.org/MYF08consult. The outcomes of this e-consultation will be all over the conference in the form of t-shirts, posters, stickers, and banners! This is your opportunity to get involved and get heard.
Registration for the 2008 International AIDS Conference in Mexico City is now open
The International AIDS Conference is a biennial forum that brings together a global community of scientists, health workers, government representatives and activists who will work together to share best practices, build partnerships and share knowledge that deals with HIV/AIDS issues. This year the conference will be held in Mexico City, To register visit: http://www.aids2008.org/mainpage.aspx?pageId=4 |
| Check out These Useful Resources |
Applications for the Media Scholarship
Media Scholarship application forms are now available on the AIDS2008 website through the conference profile. Scholarships will be offered to people from a variety of backgrounds, including those who are submitting abstracts, skills building session proposals and programme activities proposals (Global Village, Cultural Programme or Youth Programme). A number of applicants who are not submitting directly to the conference programme, as well as media representatives will also be granted scholarships.
To learn more about this scholarship please visit http://www.aids2008.org/.
AIDS 2008 Media Scholarship Department can be contacted via email at mediascholarship@aids2008.org.
2008 Staying Alive Awards
The 2008 Staying Alive Foundation Awards are now accepting applications. Awards of up to $12,000 will be made to both young individuals (aged between 15-27 years) and youth-led organizations who are working on HIV prevention and AIDS education campaigns within their communities. Applications in English, Spanish and French will be accepted. The deadline to submit your application is April 7th, 2008. Visit www.staying-alive.org to apply or for more details.
Websites and Organizations
www.staying-alive.org is an interactive website available in 13 languages and is a place where young people can share their life experiences, as well as access crucial sexual and reproductive health resources. The Staying Alive Campaign Materials are also available on DVD (in various languages) and are distributed to youth groups worldwide free of cost, for any requests please write to hello@staying-alive.org. |
Special Thanks...
The Mexico YouthForce would like to extend a special thanks to Advocates for Youth for all of their help in the first two editions of the newsletter! |
