ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

Youth Gather in Mexico City for IAC

By Nickie, July 31, 2008
Posted on RH Reality Check

Nickie is a member of the International Youth Leadership Council . She writes from the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Mexico.

This week, thousands of activists from around the world have united in Mexico City for the 17th International AIDS Conference. This is an incredibly exciting event for me, not only because it is my first International AIDS Conference, but also because I will be one of over 200 participants at the Youth Pre-Conference, organized by YouthForce.

The YouthForce, coordinated by Advocates for Youth, Ave de Mexico, Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS, TakingITGlobal, and Youth Coalition, is a coalition of non-governmental and international organizations working to ensure meaningful youth participation as well as partnerships between young people and adults to increase the visibility of youth HIV and AIDS issues before and during the International AIDS Conference. Since the establishment of YouthForce during the 2002 International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, during which only 200 young people participated, youth attendance more than quadrupled at the Toronto AIDS Conference in 2006 with more than 1,000 youth delegates attending the conference. In addition to the Youth Pre-Conference, Mexico City YouthForce has also sponsored a youth reception, the youth pavilion, a commitments desk, and an advocacy campaign, among others.

Unity among young people is crucial for this movement to succeed and the Mexico City Youth Pre-Conference is a great opportunity for young activists around the world to meet, network, and build coalitions. More than 25 years into the pandemic and with more than 6,000 young people infected with HIV each day, we need to work fast. Young people are at the center of the pandemic. In fact, young women ages 15-24 are the new face of HIV and AIDS.

Millions of people around the world have no access to reliable and comprehensive sex education. The majority of policy makers still feel like they can come up with curricula that are influenced by ideology instead of science, while we, the young people, have to suffer the consequences. But hopefully that is soon to be changed. At this year's International AIDS Conference, I look forward to building effective partnerships with other young people from around the world. We will take these partnerships back to our homes and leverage them to reach out to our policy makers. Let's face it: we have the testimonies, we have experiences, and we have the stories.

With this year's YouthForce advocacy campaign focusing on key messages that demand Rights, Respect, Responsibility, and Resources for young people, I look forward to establishing effective partnerships with not only the policy-makers at home, but also with global health organizations. These partnerships will demand commitments-commitments to provide comprehensive and accurate information, services and resources, respect, and a responsibility to empower young people to make healthy decisions. I am thrilled and excited to be one of hundreds of young people working together to have our voices heard!

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