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07.28.2016
Resources

January 2011 iYAN Newsletter

January 2011 iYAN

Advocates’ International Youth Activist Network (iYAN) consists of youth activists and adult allies from low and middle-income countries who are working to influence policies and programs in their countries and internationally to support improved youth reproductive and sexual health. Members of the iYAN connect to share information about their work; are provided information about scholarships and networking opportunities; get up-to-date information on downloadable advocacy materials and tool kits; and receive a monthly newsletter with information on advocacy, youth activism, and mobilization on important issues like sex education, access to contraception, and prevention of adolescent maternal mortality and HIV.

Happy New Year from Advocates for Youth!
When the time comes to celebrate a New Year, it’s an opportunity to reflect on what we’ve accomplished and what we have yet to achieve as individual youth activists and as a global movement for sexual and reproductive health and rights. It’s important to utilize the opportunities that we have to be the best leaders we can be and engage in dialogue to share knowledge on sexual and reproductive health issues, reach out to the media to amplify our voices, educate policy makers, and revitalize or create new advocacy campaigns to advance our issues. So let’s start the New Year by looking back on the great work that we have all been doing and feeling proud. Advocates’ wishes each and every one of you a very happy New Year and we look forward to being in touch and working together in 2011 and beyond.

Welcome to 2011—there’s a lot of work to do!

Sharing Our Passion

This Month’s Featured Blogs from Youth on Amplify

Climate Change: Youth Leaders Speak Out!

I attended the international climate change conference in Cancun, and just before I left the conference to return to the U.S. last week, I sat down with three youth activists from the Public Health Institute’s youth training and leadership program, known as GoJoven. GoJoven fellows act as catalysts for social change in Sexual and Reproductive Health across Central America. This year, fellows participated in the international climate change conference for the first time, and were enthusiastic about their ideas for taking knowledge and experiences gained at the conference, and integrating it into their advocacy work. See what they had to say below:

Lemuel (Cozumel):

What Conference events have you attended so far?
In the first two days of the Conference, I attended 7 side events, including meetings on gender and climate leadership, engaging children and youth, decision making in the context of climate uncertainty, and also the official YOUNGO (youth NGO delegates) meetings.

Which sessions were most interesting to you, and why?
I found the gender and climate change meeting particularly interesting because this is a new topic for me. There’s not much info on the subject, but in my opinion, a lot of people should care about this. I think it empowered me to be at this meeting, because I think a lot about climate change, and gender is something I’m learning more about, and I need to understand the connections more clearly so that I can understand how to apply the connections in my own work.

What are your plans for the rest of the week?
I plan to be more active with YOUNGO, as well as attend more side events. I have also visited a number of booths, talked with youth about what we do at GoJoven, and distributingGoJoven project brochures to people.

What has attending this conference meant to you?
Attending this conference is giving me a global vision of the problem of climate change. Being active on the topic lets me know that the problem is not just here in Mexico; interacting with others from around the world gives me more skills for addressing the issue in my work. When I talk to people about sexual and reproductive health (SRH), they first ask whether there is really a connection. We respond by saying that there is also a connection between population and consumption. These connections are not clear and easily understandable, but I am learning how to make them more understandable for people. My vision is international and collaborative, and I hope that those I’ve spoken with can implement some of the work we’re doing at GoJoven, or I can implement some of the work they’re doing. Making those connections has been very important for me!

Read more: http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/GoJovenClimate/2010/12/16/Climate-Change-Youth-leaders-speak-out

Protect Lesbian and Gay Jamaicans from Violence!

By Jaevion, Jamaica

The issue of violence meted out against persons who are known or perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and to a lesser extent transgender is not uncommon to Jamaicans. Scores of headlines in daily news and other print tabloids often sensationalise the death or beating of homosexuals, especially men.

Since 1997, more than thirty persons in Jamaica have been murdered because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Reports suggest that between 2007 and 2009, sixty-seven males and twelve females reported homophobic discrimination and violent incidents to the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals & Gays (J-FLAG). Many may recall the father who in 2004 found naked pictures of men in his son’s bag, brought him to school and sanctioned his son’s classmates to beat him. In that same year, Brian Williamson, a gay rights activist, was murdered at his home in St Andrew. The Hated to Death report (by Human Rights Watch) reports that his murder was not thoroughly investigated by the police. His death was seen as another crime of passion by other members of the gay community in Jamaica. In 2009, John Terry, former British Consular was violently killed at his home in Montego Bay, St James. To read more, click here:
http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/Jaevion/2010/12/16/Protect-Lesbian–Gay-Jamaicans-from-Violence

Homophobia: Our ancestors knew better!

By Moonlight

The tired excuse for homophobia in Ghana is that homosexuality is against our culture, and it’s a new thing young people are copying from the west. An “evil new thing” that ought to be condemned! People emphasize how our ancestors punished any individual who shown the slightest sexual interest in a person of the same sex by death or banishment. Is that so?

Openness to discussion and knowledge sharing on our individual sexual journeys, our sexual evolution and the truth on the stands of our ancestors on sexual preferences has been blocked by cultural and religious spasms from people who have obviously not taken the time to learn from our ancestors.

Such words as Homosexual, Lesbian and Heterosexual do not exist in our indigenous languages. (e.g. Twi, Ga, Ewe, etc…) Why are these words missing in our indigenous vocabulary? One’s sexual orientation was obviously not a thing our ancestors found a need to tag. Did our ancestors consider homosexuality an offence as today’s Africa wants us to believe? To read more, click here: http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/Moonlight/2010/12/18/Homophobia-Our-ancestors-knew-better

Why Is World AIDS Day in December?

By papavic

My friends and I were chilling and chatting in my room when suddenly the radio started playing this very interesting piece that caught our attention. We all listened and soon joined in the singing. Guess what was playing? “Jingle bells jingle bells…” December is usually a time when people make up, families come together, everyone parties as if this was the only month in a year and everyone or most people are happy!

I then began to wonder and was unable to reconcile why the World AIDS day has to be in this month when people will rather not think about anything unhappy.

But then I also realized this is a time when people will normally be more sympathetic and empathetic.

Keeping this is mind and in relation to the theme of this year’s celebration; “Universal access and human rights,” we should all be ready to make little effort to help the HIV-positive population, including young people, LGBTQ people, those affected by poverty, and marginalized groups like sex workers , who still face unequal access to resources, services, and medication. To read more, click here: http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/papavic/2010/12/20/WHY-IS-WORLD-AIDS-DAY-IN-DECEMBER

What’s New at Advocates for Youth?

Video by Advocates’ International Youth Leadership Council Member is Featured at UN Security Council Meeting

Laurel Chor, a member of the International Youth Leadership Council, has recently came back from attending the Security Council meeting at the United Nations where her one-minute long video was not only shown at the meeting, but also helped set the agenda or the entire meeting. Her video,in four of the six official UN languages, calls for sustainable development and our responsibility to protect the environment not only for our own benefit, but also for that of the generations to come. Her video was one of a handful videos chosen from submissions around the world and was showcased during the meeting, which was called “Your World, Your Future. Voices of a New Generation”. Please see below Laurel’s account of the submission process, her visit in New York, her wonderful video, and a picture with Ambassador Susan Rice, who is the United States’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations. We are very excited for Laurel’s success and her opportunity to give a youth perspective to such crucial and timely issue as sustainable development.

To read Laurel’s blog about her experience, go to
http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/laurel/2011/1/11/How-I-got-invited-to-a-UN-Security-Council-meeting

Advocates’ International Policy Update

In the US House of Representatives, Republicans Block Child Marriage Bill

Despite receiving a majority of support in the US House of Representatives (by a vote of 241-166), legislation to authorize US support to eliminate the harmful practice of child marriage internationally fell short of the 2/3 votes it needed to clear the chamber before the end of the legislative session in December. House Republicans were almost unanimous in their last-minute opposition to the bill, citing budget concerns based on potential costs even though the bill itself authorized no new funding. Meanwhile, the Republicans who rallied against this bill because of its potential cost seemed to look the other way when they voted the very same day to approve tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest Americans at an actual cost of $858 billion. Advocates for Youth blogged about the bill, issued an action alert calling for its passage, and applauded the unanimous passage in the Senate (yes 100 out of 100 Senators approved the bill) just weeks before the House’s devastating vote. Here are a few great press releases and blogs for more background on how legislators sold out young girls around the world in the name of politics:

Statement from Senator Durbin (D-IL), sponsor of the Senate bill

RH Reality Check Blog

Huffington Post Blog

Temporary Funding Extension Approved

Just before adjourning for the year, the U.S. Congress passed legislation in December to temporarily extend current funding of federal programs through March 4, 2011. The move became necessary after support for a consolidated spending bill (with modest funding increases) fell apart in the final weeks of the legislative session. With the new Congress officially in place, the Republican party now controls the House of Representatives and has called for cutting funding back to 2008 spending levels. While the Senate and the President will try to hold firm against these cuts, threats to funding for international family planning are likely. Advocates will be actively working on ensuring the highest possible funding for international family planning as well as other global health priorities. Stay tuned for further updates.

Guidance Documents Underway

The U.S. Administration is currently developing a number of documents that will provide U.S.-funded agencies with guidance on the types of programs that can be funded under various initiatives, including PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and the Global Health Initiative (GHI). Advocates for Youth has provided input on many of these guidance documents, including those related to women, girls, and gender equality; HIV prevention; MSM; and the integration of family planning/reproductive health and HIV. We will keep you apprised of the progress on these guidance documents and the extent to which they include language on young people.

New Foreign Assistance Dashboard Released

As part of its recent review of diplomacy and development, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a comprehensive, web-based tool that provides users with the ability to examine, research, and track U.S. foreign assistance investments. The Foreign Assistance Dashboard provides information on funding by country, by sector (health, education, environment, etc.) and sub-sector (HIV, family planning, nutrition, etc.), as well as by year. It also allows data to be viewed by initiative, including the Global Health Initiative, the Global Climate Change Initiative, and the Feed the Future Initiative. Users can filter and sort datasets in a variety of ways by generating their own queries and downloading the datasets for further evaluation. At this time, only State Department and USAID funding data is available on the Dashboard, but future versions of the Dashboard will incorporate budget, financial, program, and performance data across all U.S. Government agencies receiving or implementing foreign assistance. This is a great tool that will continue to be tweaked over time, so please let us know what you think about it and any data that is currently missing from it that you would like to see added. We will be compiling comments over the coming months to offer feedback on the next version of the Dashboard.

Education as a Vaccine Makes Significant Strides to Improve Nigeria’s National HIV and AIDS Anti-Stigma and Discrimination Bill

Background

Last year, Education as a Vaccine’s (EVA) Youth Advocate Group, hosted by EVA in collaboration with Advocates for Youth, was busy working to influence a proposed national HIV and AIDS anti-stigma and discrimination bill for Nigeria. In response to the call for a public hearing on the bill by the National Assembly House of Representative’s committee on HIV and AIDS, the Youth Advocates Group carefully reviewed the bill. Members of the group found that the bill inadequately addressed issues facing young people because the language in the bill only recognized discriminatory practices that stigmatize adults within a variety of settings, including the workplace. An example of how the law would fail to protect Nigeria’s young people living with HIV is exemplified by the case of one of the Youth Advocates Group members, Gloria. Gloria is a young woman living with HIV. Recently, she wanted to apply to attend the university and had to take an HIV test as a prerequisite for admission, which she was denied due to her status. The bill in its original form did not include any protections for young people, like Gloria, who are living with HIV and seeking entry into the university.

As a result of the lack of protection of young people living with HIV in the bill, the Youth Advocates Group developed and presented recommendations to improve the bill. One of the recommendations was to include language to protect young people living with HIV/AIDS from discrimination upon applying to tertiary institutions.. At the public hearing the Youth Advocates Group was the only youth group that made a formal presentation to the legislatures. In addition, the group mobilized young people from various Nigerian campuses to write letters to their legislators to support the recommendations. The House of Representative’s version of the bill was passed in October of 2010 and included the recommendations made by the Youth Advocates Group.

So what’s next? Now, a companion bill needs to be passed in the Senate for the bill to become law.

In Comes the RED CARD Campaign
Launched on the 7th of November, the RED CARD Campaign was launched to facilitate the passage of the HIV and AIDS anti-stigma and discrimination Senate companion bill through increased participation of young people. The campaign originated from previous successful efforts in pushing for the passage of the House of Representative’s version of the bill. The campaign called for young people from all over Nigeria, with a special focus on the states represented by members of the Senate Committee of Health , to take action. These actions included writing messages and stories on a red post card about the effect of stigma and discrimination on young people living with HIV in educational institutions. In addition, young people were encouraged to share the campaign by talking about it with their friends and through social media channels (this included changing their profile picture and updating their profile status on Facebook with a campaign message).

A formal Press briefing was conducted on November 31st to inform the media about the campaign. As a result of the briefing, the campaign received four media mentions on print, audio and television outlets. The Youth Advocates Group discussed the campaign on Capital FM radio and NTA network news on December 1st and AIT network news on December 2nd. The Daily Trust also reported on the campaign on the 1st of December. To see the Daily Trust report, click here. (http://allafrica.com/stories/201012010171.html).

As of now, the RED CARD Campaign has achieved the following:
Over 2,172 young people have participated in the campaign and prepared post cards which surpass the initial target of 2010 post cards.

The postcards were delivered by young people to each member of the Health Committee in the Senate and other Senators. For example, the Youth Advocates Group delivered 250 post cards written by young people in Lagos to Senator Mamora on World AIDS Day. Senator Mamora provided this response to the group, ” I appreciate what you, the youth, are doing, the issue of HIV discrimination is a very important. l am quite glad the House has passed the bill, as a member of the [senate health] committee l will communicate with Senator Obasanjo on the bill but l will also suggest you follow up with her as the chairperson of the committee. Thank you for your work we will do our best to protect PLWHA including the youth and do the same thing the house members have done.”

What’s Next?

It is not over! Additional follow-up is still needed to urge Senators to support the House version of the bill, especially the Senate Committee Chairperson, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello. The Youth Advocates Group is presently getting the committee contact details to post messages on its website and Facebook page and will continue to encourage young people to send their stories and urge the committee members to include language that protects the interest of young people in the Senate version of the bill. The YAG will monitor the progress of the bill and report this progress to young people until it has been passed into law.

Check out a blog about the campaign on Amplify here: http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/justifiable/2010/12/10/THE-RED-CAMPAIGN-AT-NASARAWA

Want to be involved? Contact Tope at yag@evanigeria.org yag@evanigeria.org
.

Rachel Maddow Interviews David Bahati, Sponsor of the Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill
by Nikki, the New Media Manager at Advocates for Youth

If you haven’t watched Rachel Maddow’s interview with David Bahati, the Ugandan parliamentarian and lead sponsor of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, watch it now.

As we reported, Bahati was barred from attending a conference in Washington, DC organized by the International Consortium of Governmental Financial Management. His subsequent decision to tape an interview with Rachel Maddow during his U.S. visit must have come as a surprise to some, but arguably, it makes a great deal of political sense. I don’t doubt that it will be easy for Bahati to brag to his supporters about this brave television appearance — look at me, I stood up for our values in front of this lesbian and liberal gay rights activist, etc. etc..

You’ve got to hand it to Maddow. Other primetime talk show hosts have made it their operative shtick to interrupt and berate their guests. In this interview, though, Maddow gives Bahati ample room to lay out his argument. She herself is direct and on point, and asks Bahati some simple, insightful questions — questions that uncover the vacuum of an argument that Bahati depends on in order to defend his “Kill the Gays” bill.

Near the beginning of the interview, Bahati claims that foreign money is being used to recruit Ugandan children into homosexuality:
“…We have a huge problem in our country…the problem of people who are coming from abroad…investing money to recruit children…into a behavior that we believe is a learned behavior and can be unlearned…”

To read more, click here: http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/AFY_Nikki/2010/12/13/VIDEO-Rachel-Maddow-Interviews-David-Bahati-Sponsor-of-Ugandas-AntiHomosexuality-Bill

Tools You Can Use

Evidence-Based Guidelines for Youth Peer Education

By experts from USAID, Office of Global AIDS Coordinator (office of PEPFAR), the Inter-agency Working Group, Family Health International and Y-PEER

Developed with the input of experts from around the world, the “Evidence-Based Guidelines for Youth Peer Education” offers recommendations on evidence-based youth peer education practices and a framework for quality assurance. The recommendations focus on peer education to improve sexual and reproductive health, but they can be applied in youth peer education programs generally. The audience for this document is policymakers, program managers, supervisors, trainers, peer educators, and other stakeholders invested in quality programming for young people.

Evidence-Based Guidelines for Youth Peer Education features:
Specific guidelines for the different phases of implementing a program: planning, recruitment and retention of peer educators, supervision and management, and monitoring and evaluation.
Explanations of the available evidence on what works in peer education.
Real-world examples of how the recommended guidelines are used in successful programs.
A checklist and action planning tool to aid in implementing the guidelines.
Annexes that provide a comprehensive list of resources on peer education

You can order a printed version by sending a request to publications@fhi.org.

Training Manual for HIV Prevention, Substance Use and Sexual Health

By YouthRISE
Youth RISE has launched a youth-driven training manual for HIV prevention, substance use, and sexual health in order to empower and educate young people, reduce stigma and ultimately save lives. Recognizing the severe lack of available and appropriate peer based resources that address sexual health, substance use, and harm reduction issues, Youth RISE embarked on a two-year project to develop a resource for peer educators. The training manual is the result of a series of workshops conducted in 2009 and 2010 by young people in Romania, India, Canada and
Mexico.

Young people can now use this step-by-step manual to facilitate peer education workshops, with the flexibility to include regionally specific sections on topics that are more relevant to young people in particular regions, such as stimulant or alcohol use.

The MTV Staying Alive Foundation funds the project and Youth RISE will design and facilitate trainings in four additional countries over the next two years.

The training manual can be accessed at www.youthrise.org and is available in English and Spanish.. An Arabic version will available in the near future.

Read All About It

Malaysia Struggles to Address Baby Abandonment
Nearly 80 abandoned infants who have been found in Malaysia, some already dead, is prompting much soul-searching and calls for action. Reactions to the steady stream of headlines about unwanted babies have ranged from an expansion of sex education in schools to calls for stiffer penalties and the opening of the country’s first “baby hatch,” where infants can be left to be cared for by others. One state government has offered financial support for younger teenagers to marry, angering women’s groups that have been campaigning against child marriage.

Read more from the New York Times:

Malaysia Struggles With Baby Abandonment

The U.S. Launches HIV Program in Zimbabwe
The United States has launched a new program in Zimbabwe to encourage HIV testing. The U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe, local musicians, broadcast personalities and soccer stars took HIV tests to mark the occasion.
Alexio Kawara, one of the nation’s most popular musicians, said Zimbabwean celebrities are leading the U.S. program launched on World AIDS day to dispel fears over knowing one’s HIV status US Ambassador, Charles A. Ray, said, “wiser older folk” like him are not always listened to, but he hoped the young, popular celebrities could set the example that others would follow.
Read more from the Huffington Post: US Launches HIV Program In Zimbabwe

A Glimpse of Maternal Mortality in Vietnam
Linh, a 24-year-old rice farmer, belongs to the Muong people, one of 54 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam, most of whom live in remote areas. Women such as Linh are 10 times more likely to die in childbirth than their urban counterparts, according to the World Health Organisation. Poverty and cultural beliefs can hinder a safe start to motherhood. Many women give birth alone, sometimes in the forest.

Obstacles to safe motherhood persist despite Vietnam’s impressive rate of development since its communist government adopted a market economy in 1986. It has already achieved Millennium Development Goal 1 – to eradicate extreme poverty – with the proportion of the population living below the poverty line falling from 35% in 2000 to 12% in 2009. Vietnam is also on track to meet the goal of reducing maternal mortality but low-income pregnant women in remote areas, like Linh, remain at great risk.
Read more from The Guardian:

Tackling gender inequality in Vietnam

Thailand Confronts Its Limited Access to Safe Abortion
In December, a cleansing ceremony was held to appease the “wandering souls” of 2,000 fetuses discovered on the grounds of a Bangkok Buddhist temple and believed to have been sent there from illegal abortion clinics.

The Thai public has been grappling with the implications of an admission from one of the temple’s undertakers that he had been secretly storing the fetuses in the vaults of the crematorium after the temple’s furnace broke down.

Under Thai law, only abortions of pregnancies that result from incest or rape or endanger the life of the mother are legal.
Read more from this New York Times article:

Thailand Confronts Its Issues With Abortion

UNAIDS Report Shows Fewer People Are Newly Infected with HIV/AIDS
Fewer people are being infected with the virus that causes AIDS than at the epidemic’s peak, but progress against the disease is still halting and fragile, the United Nations’ AIDS-fighting agency reported.

In its new report on the epidemic, UNAIDS reports that 2.6 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2009 — almost 20 percent fewer than in the late 1990s.

But progress is spotty. About 25 countries are doing better at prevention, including several in southern Africa with sky-high AIDS rates.

South Africa, which has the world’s worst epidemic, has benefited from the changeover from the presidency of Thabo Mbeki, who was hostile to the distribution of AIDS drugs, to that of Jacob Zuma, who has publicly taken an AIDS test and urged citizens to do the same. Still, South Africa is faced with an estimated 350,000 to 500,000 new infections annually.

Read more from the New York Times:

U.N. Reports Decrease in New H.I.V. Infections

My Voice Counts

Not on Amplify? Join Now!
Have you heard about Amplify but don’t know exactly what it is? One of Advocates for Youth’s main strategies is the use of new media technologies to empower young people to access information, share perspectives, connect to peers and services, and take action on issues that they care about.

Advocates communicates with its domestic and international networks of young people regularly via Amplify (www.amplifyyourvoice.org), a groundbreaking global Web site for young people working to improve youth sexual and reproductive and rights.

Through the site, young activists blog, share stories, reach out to policy makers, write op-eds, and organize on-the-ground activism.

Amplify allows registered users to automatically stream their activities on Amplify to Facebook, so that a young person writing a blog about international family planning can share it instantly with hundreds of his/her friends. Amplify has been instrumental during the past year in successfully launching a campaign in favor of increased international family planning funding and in building Advocates’ International Youth Activist Network of more than 800 young people and youth-led/serving organizations around the globe.

You probably already know, but POWER comes with you as leaders who want to make a difference.

So, if you’re not already on Amplify, JOIN!

If you know people who are interested, get THEM to JOIN!
Blogging is fun, easy, and you can AMPLIFY your OWN voice by giving it a try!

Go to www.amplifyyourvoice.org and make your voice heard!

You mean that I can submit an essay and get a free Advocates for Youth notebook?
YOUR voice is an essential part of what makes this newsletter a SUCCESS. Please submit your stories to share with other youth activists from around the world! If you are one of the FIRST 10 iYAN members to submit an essay that follows the guidelines below, you will WIN a blue Advocates for Youth notebook and pen (to write more essays, of course!).

Here are the guidelines for writing an essay:

Keep your essay to no more than 500 words.
Use language that is simple and easy for non-native English speakers to read.
Write about sexual and reproductive issues that you care about and/or what you are doing to make a difference. Share your experiences working on sexual and reproductive health issues and policies—tell your story. What’s going on with access to contraception and family planning services for youth, abortion, gender disparities, maternal mortality, traditional harmful practices, HIV/AIDS, stigma and homophobia, etc.? What are the challenges facing young people in your country? What are the challenges for you as an activist? Why did you get involved in this movement to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights for young people? What is working to improve programs and policies and young people’s sexual and reproductive health?

Also, please note that:

· If you have a photo, would like us to include it with your essay, and can send it via email, please do! It’s okay if you do not have a photo, but we would like to bring a face to your words when we have the chance.
· Advocates for Youth edits all published materials, so we will send you the revised draft for your approval before it is featured in the newsletter. We want to make sure that you are happy with the final product as well!
· When you submit an essay, it may not appear right away in the next issue but we will be sure to include it in the next possible newsletter.
· Even if you submitted an essay, you can still send others for upcoming issues of the newsletter.
· You will receive an email by the next iYAN edition as to whether or not you are one of the first 10 people to submit an essay.

If you have questions on how to submit your essay, please contact Mimi at
mimi@advocatesforyouth.org. Do it soon!! You could be one of the first 10!

Coming Soon

International Women’s Day, March 8

Putting women and women’s right to equality on the global agenda is the driving force behind International Women’s Day. In December of 1977, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.

Since those early years, much progress has been made for women in developed and developing countries alike. In many countries, provisions guaranteeing the enjoyment of human rights without discrimination on the basis of sex have been included in constitutions. Legal literacy and other measures have been introduced to alert women to their rights and to ensure their access to those rights; the world community has identified violence against women as a clear violation of women’s rights; and the United Nations and many member states have prioritized and incorporated gender perspectives into regular programs and policies.

Although much remains to be done to achieve full equality, the voices of women are being heard. March 8th provides an opportunity to pay tribute to the achievements of women and to highlight the needs and concerns of women on community, national, regional and global agendas.

Read more about International Women’s Day.

To find out more about Women’s Rights, click here: http://www.unac.org/en/news_events/un_days/women2.asp

Here are some ideas of what you can do on International Women’s Day!

http://www.unac.org/en/news_events/un_days/women5.asp

Mark your calendar for International Women’s Day Blog-a-thon: March 6-12, 2011!
Advocates is mobilizing youth from all over the world to blog about issues like gender equity, women’s empowerment, access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information for young people and much more! You can be involved too–just join Amplify: www.amplifyyourvoice.org and post your blogs.

Advocates for Youth has a form to sign-up for the iYAN on our website. Send this link to your friends so they can sign-up too!

www.advocatesforyouth.org\iYAN

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