agements pris vis à vis des malades, des séropositifs et de ceux qui sont encore sains.

Tenons nos promesses!!!

François

International AIDS Conference on 3rd-8th/August-2008.

I noticed that I was missing the youth pre-conference during the main conference,and the youth pavillion served the purpose of many young people as Adults visiting the place,it was an overwhelming conference,with some and none crosscutting issues at all and thanks to the youth pavillion and the youth daily orientation...wow,they were too early though!!The updates were lifesaving if you ask me.

Bye bye to Toronto with the tiresome North and South building levels..-which made me not to attend some sessions and I was not alone...that is for sure,but the few skills I earned I believe were rich and are already in my wayforward list to start the implementation...Time to Deliver is not a slogan.....was it to you?< br />
we are all not perfect.....lets give credit where it deserved and open more doors for youth.

Miss you all.....

From Jacky Kowa
Kenya-Nairobi

e
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PS- if you want a t-shirt or posters, check back on the site in a week or so to find out how to order them!

Joya Banerjee- Program Coordinator of the Global Youth Coalition on
HIV/AIDS and Co-Chair of the Advocacy TaskForce of the Toronto
YouthForce

s ; le meilleur c'est la solidarité et notre capacité à réagir face à une épidemie aussi désastreuse.

Il reconnait les avancées de la médecine moderne ces dernières années et invite les acteurs à redoubler d'efforts pour aller plus loin dans les recherches.

MERCI CHER PRESIDENT

s, the closing ceremonies, and hurried good-byes,. AIDS 2006 has come to an end. “Overwhelming” would be the key descriptive word for the week. The walls of the Youth Pavilion are almost bare. A few lone pictures remain, waiting for their owners to come and claim them. The chairs have been stacked and the usual crowds have dwindled.

Next week, delegates will be back at work in their home countries. Back to the routine of daily living, back to the realities of families, organizations, and everything else that they had left. While a week usually does not feel like a long time, the past five days have been so packed full of events and information, that a month could have passed by and no one would have noticed.

No matter what people’s expectation s were, every one of the 25,000 delegates who attended this conference will be bringing something back with them. Some will bring back new ideas and creative energy for their programs. Others will bring back new information and resources. But all of us will bring back new contacts from our time in Toronto – new friends made with the hope of developing new partnerships.

everal times before and am never less than moved deep inside by the strength and resilience of this woman. Beatrice represents the people that the moralistic leaders of the world continue to neglect: she was a monogamous, faithful married woman who practiced the ABC model…and still contracted HIV. Her closing of the panel brought a long standing ovation, and when challenged by an American man during the Question and Answer session over the statistical evidence behind her argument, successfully threw the questions back upon him, providing her own statistics and winning another booming round of applause.

2) Speaking to Frika Chiu Iskander throughout the conference: Frika, a beautiful young Indonesian positive woman who won the thousands-strong crowd over during the opening ceremony as the youth speaker (only to have media focus—of course—on Bill and Melinda Gates), is a real pocket dynamo of an activist. It’s also lovely to meet fellow South-east Asian/Australasian people involved in the AIDS fight.

3) Talking to Watema and Acana from Uganda about the SPIT Youth Movement: Since an early ago, growing up on the gravel-tops of Western Australia, I have always loved street basketball, and I have grown to love the universal language that positive, conscious hip hop provides for my generation. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to learn that these two entrepreneurial streetballers and rhyme-spitters from Kampala, Uganda are creating an HIV movement that combines these two art forms with prevention methods and youth communication. They even performed a freestyle for me upon my request.

4) The Treatment Action Campaign’s staged protest at a major press conference: There are fewer more beautiful stories in the AIDS movement then that of Zackie Achmat and the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, which successfully forced its government—through raw grit, heart, and fury at its government’s neglect—to scale up access to ARVs. I often see South Africa as the soul of the activist movement, and even as cases begin to escalate in India and other Asian population centers, for me, South Africa remains the moral compass of the movement. Nobody more so than Zackie Achmat, a positive Indian-South African doctor who refused life-saving medication until all South Africans had access to the drugs, represents this movement. Combine this with the zest for life—singing and dancing flow out of the actions of TAC like momentous Neruda-evoking love poems, and you have an inspirational movement. In particular, Sipho Mthati, a young, full-voiced woman who has captured many peoples’ hearts, articulates the needs of positive people with an eloquence, intelligence, and beauty that few can muster. It makes me choke up simply thinking about what she represents to people back in her home country. But her command over the press conference yesterday, where she astounded journalists and others with her understanding and power over all of the issues raised, was at times breathtaking and never more than affirming of the will and intelligence of the everyday human being: galvanized and mobilized towards a noble go al.

5) The Global Village in general: on the whole, this room was just the most wonderful, chaotic collision of humanity I’ve ever seen assembled in one place. Typing away in the media center, one was constantly overhearing song, music, drumming, and other aural inspirers flowing out of the Village. It is as if the whole of Grand Central Station in New York City was locked together, shaken up and down, and all those inside happened to be committed to ending the AIDS epidemic in a hundred different ways and by supporting every conceivable group. It was a welcome change from the dry, cerebral nature of many of the sessions, and breathed a huge gust of life into proceedings.

6) Paul Farmer’s Photographs: One of the true ‘rock stars’ of the AIDS fight, Dr. Farmer used to fly from his post at the medical faculty in Harvard to Haiti, illegally carrying over AIDS drugs in his suitcase for the many who need them in this suffering Caribbean nation. He’s also a brilliant writer and a man whose presence encourages all of us to put our actions where our words are. He showed several pictures of people at clinics from his health facilities in Haiti and Rwanda that I found particularly affecting, as I’m sure hundreds of others did during the session.

7) The ‘Come As You Are’ Sex Workshop: Come As You Are is a local sex store in Toronto. Their candid, this-is-how-it-works, sex workshop in the Global Village was at times humorous, eye-opening, and entirely maturely-led. For many of the participants who come from societies in which sex remains a largely taboo subject, I think it really broke new ground for them. Plus, I got a free pocket vibrator, and those are always handy to have around.

8) Seeing and laughing with friends from around the world once again: Working on HIV in Washington D.C. can sometimes be an isolating experience. It’s necessary for the soul and worldview-affirming to meet and reunite with brilliant AIDS activists from Egypt, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Botswana, Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Guatemala and so on. I am constantly reminded of the universality of human suffering, of human feeling, and human spirit, as we work together to finally send this terrible pestilence into the annals of our history as rapidly as possible.

9) Asking Peter Piot to wear a giant condom su it: Ever one to throw on the occasional giant phallic outfit, I thought it would be only suitable for us as youth reporters to ask him whether he would don such a suit to fight stigma, bouncing his way up to the microphone during the opening ceremony before the thousands of participants. He declined, in his endearing slightly socially awkward, over-educated Belgian doctor sort of way. The podcast is up on the site if anyone wants to catch it; we got a good laugh out of his response, and I’m sure he did too.

10) The Empancipation of Sovhik: I first bumped into this little Indian fashion designer on the night that we both got in. He was very lost, very tired, and told me that Toronto was the first time he’d stepped out of Calcutta. I helped him back to the dorm, and then h ad the chance to cover his fashion show, which had a jam-packed youth pavilion audience whooping and cheering. He then showcased the first Bengali music video to positively highlight gay male relationships. Afterwards, he was surrounded by a flock of eager journalists and enthusiastic viewers of his eye-catching work. I could tell that he was absolutely loving it. Sovhik’s rise from lost young man, fresh off of the plane, to rising designer and queer activist is in essence, the dream of the AIDS and social justice movement writ large. I know that he will return home a more empowered, more confident young man, and I believe and trust that his is only one in a sea of similarly life-affirming, positive stories coming out of this momentous gathering.

on of women and girls is especially important to the organization, which is faced with breaking down stereotypes that women are fit only for the home. However, as local coach Safari Kayisire said, “thanks to sports, the children learn tolerance,” and before long, girls are welcomed onto the playing field alongside boys.
Dr. Bruce Kidd of the University of Toronto, explained that the importance of including girls in sports is academically supported. Studies show that teenage women involved in high school sports are less likely to contract STDs, which is directly related to the fact that their participation gives them self-esteem and confidence that strengthens their capacity to negotiate their own sexuality.
Yet self-confidence is nothing without knowledge, an understand ing Right to Play uses in tailoring its games to specific situations. In one AIDS-related game, certain children play the HIV virus and try to catch others; however, as the children run after one another, coaches yell out different causes for getting caught, such as unprotected sex, thus teaching the children in a very unobtrusive way.
There is an ancient proverb that reads, “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember, Involve me and I will understand.” By occupying children with fun activities that engage and educate simultaneously, Right to Play has crafted a brilliant program that harnesses the energy of children for positive means.
As the Olympic speedskater Joey Cheek said, “children everywhere play.” By playing sports, children are able to sociali ze, exercise, vent frustration, and learn important life skills. If only adults were willing to be so light-hearted as to play as children do, perhaps the world would be a better place.

reculer, ils sont nécessaires à notre maturité. Sans difficultés ni défis nous n'aurons rien à raconter ou à léguer aux générations futures.
Les jeunes à travers leur Pavillon et ses nombreuses activités viennent de démontrer leur inspiration, leur force et leurs capacités.
OUI Georgres Bernanos avait raison de dire que "c'est la force de la jeunesse qui maintient la température du monde à la normale, quand le monde a froid le monde craque".
Notre présence s'est fait remarquée et les dirigeants doivent prendre acte et nous donner plus de pouvoir et de parole.
Demain nous appartient et nous devons être associés à la résolution des grand problèmes mondiaux.

MAINTENONS LA FLAMME ALLUMEE

STAND UP

was easy for anyone to ask that question. The familiar enthusiastic response each time a stranger asks this question was automatic, but what followed was unexpected. Only, it should not have been.

She said, "So what you think will change" (because of the conference). This follow up never happened before, although I have thought of what I want to do when I return home, to Trinidad and Tobago. The obvious response, and the one I used was, "the progress will be seen after each delegate and media return to their respective countries (with the information)". I went on to explain, not sure if her composed expression meant she thought the conference was a waste of time. We said goodbye and that was the end of the conversation that has disturbed me since.

Follow me f or a moment to analyze the HIV/AIDS problem in one short paragraph. HIV/AIDS turned up on the global health radar twenty-five years ago. Today a record 40 million is estimated to be living with the disease. In addition, half of new infections are among young people between 15 and 24. The epidemic has created its own global citizenship and resides in every region of the world. So we are all either infected or affected (or both) by the changes HIV/AIDS has caused. Still, with all the information the problem of not enough political will, gender, stigma, discrimination and a lack of access to information, education and services remain as barriers. But maybe the biggest barrier to breaking down this disease is INACTION!

You can change this; young people know the issues, as 24 yea r old Frika Iskandar puts it. She tested positive for HIV when she was eighteen. She is committed to preventing others from contracting HIV. At the same time speaking out in support of those who are living with HIV. The message she was sending: Do something about what’s happing!

Remember, Youth/adult partnerships have proven to work, according to Kerrel from Jamaica. She started a HIV/AIDS care service that has partnered with adults from the beginning. Meet with the government and political figures to get the facts and their help. If young people and the general public feel untouched by the HI/AIDS epidemic get the statistics and show them, is the advice from Melinda, a youth AIDS activist. There are ideas that you can share with online networks. For a start locate others in your area, groups and people interested in the same thing or try youthaidscoalition.org. Whatever you decide, do something!

ence level. All this has opened doors of opportunity and fosters greater networking possibilities. With a greater resolve we will go home to impact our society in this global fight against time, against stigma and discrimination, against HIV/AIDS a pandemic that has hit the Caribbean region with the force of a million watts!
We are determine to continue the fight because in the end we are all vulnerable. We also see it fit to maintain not only dialogue but action, afterall it's time to deliver!
One Love!

Matilde Maddaleno - Regional Advisor Adolescent Health, WHO
Mariam Claeson - Coordinator of South Asia, World Bank


To check out the commitments themselves, take a look over here!

anoparticles with three different capping agents: foamy carbon, poly (PVP), and bovine serum albumin (BSA)."Not using a capping agent could result in the synthesis of big crystals instead of nanocrystals," explained Yacaman.

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed the silver nanoparticles in the foamy carbon matrix were joined together, but an ultrasonic bath in deionized water released a significant number of nanoparticles. These nanoparticles were of size 16.19 (+-8.69)nm and had the greatest variety of shapes, such as icosahedral, decahedral, and elongated.

"Because of the synthesis procedure, the foamy carbon-coated naoparticles are more likely to have broad shape distribution," said Yacaman. Scientists used the electron beam to release the remainder of the nanoparticles from the joined bundle.

For the PVP-coated silver nanoparticles, scientists used glycerine as a dissolving agent. These particles were of size 6.53 (+-2.41). In the third preparation, scientists used serum albumin, the most common protein in blood plasma. The sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen chemicals in BSA stabilized the nanoparticles, which were in the range of 3.12 (+-2.00) nm.

Scientists studied the absorption spectra of the different preparations to pinpoint their shapes. "Spherical nanoparticles absorbed in the blue region of the spectrum, for example," Yacaman said.

Also, the UV-Visible spectra graphs helped the group determine nanoparticle sizes. "The surface plasmon resonance peak wavelength increased with size," expl ained Yacaman.

Scientists tested, in vitro, each of three silver nanoparticle-preparations in HIV-1 cells. Yacaman and his colleagues incubated the samples at 37 C. After three hours and 24 hours, respectively, 0% of the cells were living.

The results showed that a silver nanoparticle concentration greater than 25 ug/mL worked more effectively at inhibiting HIV-1 cells. Plus, the foamy carbon was a slightly-better capping agent because of its free surface area. Size also played a role since none of the attached nanoparticles were greater than 10nm.

Scientists think the nanoparticles bonded through the gp120 glycoprotein knobs on HIV-1, using the sulfur residues on the knobs. The spacing between the knobs of ~22nm matched the center-to-center nan oparticle spacing.

Although this study shows silver nanoparticles may treat HIV-1, scientists need to research this relationship further. "We lack information regarding the long-term effects of metal nanoparticles," cautioned Yacaman. Scientists are forming a preventive cream for HIV-1, which they will test on humans.

Scientists are also studying other uses for silver nanoparticles. "We're testing against other viruses and the 'super bug (Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus).' Our preliminary results indicate that silver nanoparticles can effectively attack other micro-organisms," Yacaman said.

By Syeda Z. Hamdani; Copyright 2005 PhysOrg.com

br /> Cette medecine n'a-t-elle pas fait ces preuves en terre africaine avant l'arrivee de nos amis les adpetes de Descartes?

Personne ne doit etre mis de cote!!

BRAVO CHERS AMIS ET CONTINUEZ LA LUTTE

br /> Cette medecine n'a-t-elle pas fait ces preuves en terre africaine avant l'arrivee de nos amis les adpetes de Descartes?

Personne ne doit etre mis de cote!!

BRAVO CHERS AMIS ET CONTINUEZ LA LUTTE

olls royce projects,” or in other words, optional. Studies have shown that the effectiveness of ARV treatment is critically enhanced by proper nutrition and among the 14 million people who need interventions in the next two years, some 6 million require food intervention.
Stephen Lewis, in response to the folks who refuse to recognize the importance of proper nutrition, suggested that perhaps abstinence programs should redirect money to nutrition. One journalist interjected that the South African Minister of Health greatly promotes and supports the idea of proper nutrition; however, Lewis made it clear that his tactics of suggesting certain foods such as beet root, garlic, and sweet potato as replacements for ARVs are completely unacceptable.
As if all of this wasn’t co nvincing enough, Dr. Farmer called attention to Joseph, a young man from Haiti who stood as living proof of the effectiveness of proper nutrition in combination with ARVs. Using before and after photos over the span of six months to prove to the audience that nutritious food is essential, we saw Joseph’s transformation from emaciated to healthy. From knocking on death’s door to embracing his life ahead, there was no clearer illustration of the power of food than Joseph, who sat among us.
I’m enthralled by the concept of holistic health, which extends to the idea of spiritual, emotional, as well as physical nourishment. By being able to provide food along with HIV/AIDS treatment regimens, the World Food Programme is succeeding in sending a message that the whole person is va lued; their life is not just worth hanging on to, but enhancing. With proper nutrition in combination with ARV treatment, people living with HIV/AIDS can make a positive contribution to their societies, engage with their families, and create the life that they want for themselves.
For further information about the World Food Programme’s initiatives, check out www.wfp.org.

ey will commit and by when they will achieve the commitment. And we'll be following up with them.

You can read some of the commitments here on our site. This week Mark Wainberg (Conference Co-Chair), Mary Robinson the former head of the High Commission on Human Rights, Tim Thomas the ED of MTV Staying Alive Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates, the Crown Princess of Norway, and others made commitments. Others were from teachers committing to creating an awareness and advocacy group to talk to elemtary school kids about gender discrimination and homophobia. The Coordinator of the Ministry of Health in Guyana committed to training 300 peer educators.

If you are here and see a decision-maker, please bring her/him to the commitments desk and speak to him/her about w hy youth involvement makes a difference.

If you are not, you can still talk to decision-makers in your country about what we are doing and get them to make a time-bound commitment to youth.

Joya Banerjee- Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Toronto YouthForce

s, recepciones, presentaciones, fiestas y cokteles que las financiadoras, los laboratorios y las grandes organizaciones
internacionales ofrecen al termino de las jornadas.

Los estands en la Conferencia son enormes, los latinos estamos presentes a traves del Grupo Caribeño
trabajando en VIH, Brasil,LACCASO y Mexico. Han habido varias presentaciones en las sesiones
pero sin duda hay mas carteles de nuestra region que sesiones orales desgraciadamente.
Principalmente Brasil ha tenido algunas importantes aportaciones.

Los mexicanos hemos estado bastante ocupados con las sesiones buscando las oportunidades y las experiencias para la siguiente conferencia porque ahora si, nos toca a los latinos!

he risk of contracting HIV. A great challenge that faces Inuit communities lies in the fact that community health centres are not places where someone can go to for anonymous testing, since they are staffed by family and friends. The shortage of resource workers means that doctors and nurses have a high burnout rate, leaving much to be desired from the health system.
However gloomy that all may sound, there is great promise for the future. Currently the Nunavut government is working on a sexual health strategy, and will hopefully be able to provide culturally-specific programming for the proud Inuit people and their communities.

’s control. No one chooses their skin colour, their gender, or to be HIV-positive. No one deserves to be criticized or victimized because of these things.
One very positive initiative that has come of the battle against stigma is visible at the conference this week: a t-shirt that reads “HIV POSITIVE” is available to all, regardless of their status. The beauty of the message on the clothing also lies in the double entendre, that whether the person is HIV positive or positive about HIV, they should not have to be afraid to be loud and proud.

G), which assists the body in recognizing self-cells and identifying foreign invaders, such as HIV, allowing the body to reject it’s entry and thereby preventing new infections.

The sex workers he has studied have been involved in high-risk sex trade work for roughly 20 years, however, many have remained negative. He found that those who had not contracted the virus had particular variants of HLAG, while those who were positive had more susceptible variants.

The theory is that by interrupting HLAG in the mucosal tract, through a vaginal applicant similar to a microbicide, the spread of HIV can be prevented, however he qualified that at this point HLAG research is still in its preliminary phases.

Sarah Switzer, a 23-year-old native of Toronto, discussed her research into discourses of self-care and responsibility. She recruited 50 students from her university and had them gather mass media material, which they then critiqued, reflected upon, and used to identify existing gaps in HIV theory. She showed the audience a book of compiled ‘secret messages’ the students had provided her.

“The book can be used as a prevention tool in itself,” she explained, but also serves to identify existing gaps in HIV/AIDS scholarship. She has been involved in the Otesha program, teaching “adbusting” to peers—assisting them in understanding mass media messages in terms of self-identity and behavior, and which runs several social justice and environmentalism campaigns.

Sophie Gbesso, a young woman from Ben in, conducted a sexual and reproductive health baseline survey in her home community. Through community meetings, focus groups, and hundreds of individual interviews, she identified issues of transactional sex for young girls, intersecting issues involving poverty and marriage, as well as a need for faster program implementation.

Shocked at the results of her study, Sophie has taken it upon herself to help inform her peers within her community about the virus.

Maulik Baxi, a 23-year-old physician from India who moderated the event, asked the participants about the difficulties in gathering peer-review-friendly quantitative data in any HIV study, an issue to which they all acknowledged presents a common issue in numerous qualitative-based contexts.

When asked about their future plans, the young researchers expressed a strong commitment to furthering their education and engaging in AIDS activism. It’s wonderful to see the holistic involvement of my generation in the response to the epidemic, and projects a hopefully narrowing gap between the scholar and the studied.

Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC), which provided additional support to TAC during the action. Moving from a protest outside the convention center against U.S. Free Trade Agreements, they had regrouped inside the building and coordinated with their South African colleagues via cell phone, awaiting permission to join the demonstration. A few minutes later, a member of TAC arrived to give them the green light.

“They’re now accepting white people,” Matt Kavanagh, Harvard graduate and executive director of the organization, informed his colleagues, his tone a mixing both subtle humor and a sort of knowing liberal consciousness. Symbolic and literal representation of communities they view as marginalized or under-represented is an ever-present, almost obsessive concern for the A IDS activist community. TAC, which is largely comprised of HIV-positive black South Africans, but whose membership includes other ethnic groups, had previously expressed a desire to keep the demonstration as ‘black’ as possible. Over 60 percent of all people living with HIV are in Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Africa has more than any other individual nation: 5.5 million, of whom the vast majority of those diagnosed are black.

Upon receiving the green light, the SGAC group discretely slid into the media center, where they joined TAC members in one of the unused interview rooms for a quick briefing on their message and action plan. Then, they walked into the press conference with signs concealed, before taking over and reframing the entire event in efficient, if dramatic fashion.

The whole process took about 15 minutes.

It was not the first time they had co-opted an event in such fashion. Rather, it has become a practically expected part of any large-scale AIDS event for activists to take main stage through direct action tactics. Since the inception of organizations such as Act UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in New York and Paris, whose “Silence Equals Death” slogan in the 1980s remains one of the most successful advocacy campaigns in recent history, through to today’s transnational advocacy movements, AIDS activists have played a historic, formative role in shaping the AIDS debate, battling for media representation and enlarging the circle of inclusion.

This conference is a case study of this consi stent evolution. Originally starting as an academic and research-centered conference for the scientific and medical communities, it has since grown to become an extraordinarily broad gathering of people involved in HIV from every country and sector of society, including community organizers, peer educators, sex workers, music celebrities, and, of course, activists. It now even boasts its own global village, a colorful, lively hub of activity, where music and street theatre takes place besides sex workshops and fashion shows.

AIDS is commonly described as the petri dish of social issues. It serves to magnify and bring to light a broad spectrum of contemporary social ills, including race, class, sexuality, increasing corporate power, democracy, trade liberalization, and U.S. hegemony. In similar fashion, the AIDS activist movement, with its own complex dynamics and varied worldviews, effectively captures the state and direction of other global social movements, serving indirectly as its own petri dish.

Helen Gayle, whose glances of consternation towards TAC delegates before the ‘take-over’ suggested that this was not her first event at which activists had taken control, attempted to keep the conference as close to the original agenda as possible. However, following the conference’s unplanned transformation, she struggled to keep discussion on topic, and the majority of questions from the media were addressed to, or at least addressed by Ms. Mthathi, whose articulacy and well-informed response remained constant.

The general t heme of Ms. Mthathi and her organization was the continued marginalization and lack of participation of those most affected by the virus: poorer people of color from developing countries. However, she touched on a variety of other issues, including what she viewed as her own government’s misinformation campaigns, difficulty in procuring second line treatment, and pharmaceutical lobby interests in the United States’ HIV/AIDS foreign policy.

Several times during the questioning process, one of the TAC’s leaders, who is a white man, condemned the moderator and several journalists for addressing their questions to Dr. Fauci, an American doctor.

“This is exactly the problem we’re talking about,” he shouted angrily. “Why don’t you ask Sipho to answe r the question? Are only people who come from [English-speaking countries] allowed to answer?”

Meanwhile, media ravenously snapped up footage and photographs of the standing protesters, who continued to chant and cheer following particularly prescient points. More media gathered outside the pressroom, shooting their pictures with arms outstretched upwards, unable to squeeze into the now crowded entrance.

I noticed Frika Chiu, the young positive Indonesian woman who had spoken so eloquently at the Opening Ceremony, holding a sign towards the back which read “Face Reality About HIV/AIDS – People Are Dying,” another attack on the recent ‘celebrity circus’ nature of this year’s conference. This is, some might argue, an inevitable consequence of the more inclusive, populist direction that activists such as Frika herself have championed for the IAC. With increased media exposure comes increased commercial interest, in addition to a watering down, or perhaps more accurately, a “prettying up” of the event for lay audiences.

But then swiveling the video camera around the room, I couldn’t help but realize that this was a perfect “Petri dish” moment. Elevated at the front, Helen Gayle, an African-American woman with seasoned roots in the establishment and Dr. Fauci, from the upper crust of medical circles and representative of the white, educated, male elite in the North. Then, to his left, Ms. Mthathi and her colleague, two young 'community-level' women, aggressively representing the sentiments of the majority of p eople infected or affected by the virus. Finally, next to them, a Ugandan female minister, representing the oft-criticized African elite.

Before them in the audience lay more fragmented segments of international society. In one pocket stood the TAC protesters: angry, emotive, and black. Seated or kneeling around them, the media: mostly white yet certainly more ethnically diverse, many of whom are busy in their own career-driven lives--capturing footage on expensive cameras, emailing it back to their bureaus, then flying off to cover another story next week. At the back of the room, protesters from outside South Africa: some of them Northern, others from the South, all very vigorous in righteously supporting TAC, whom they often refer to as their “brothers and sisters,” a glimpse into their model of global citizenship and social equity.

In this heavily discussed globalizing world are mixed notions of choice, freedom and rights. As an activist example: the political and business leaders of the world have the choice to take decisive action in overcoming the epidemic; millions of people living with HIV without access to generic drugs do not have the choice to save their own lives. For them, many governments and pharmaceutical executives are denying the poor and disempowered the human right to life.

An opposing example: Pharmaceutical companies should have the freedom to patent and protect their intellectual property in a competitive global economy; the U.S. government has the freedom to encourage free trade agreements with poorer countries. For such individuals, activists do not understand the realities of macroeconomics or international trade, and their shouting and theatre provide more distraction than positive outcome.

Depending on where one stands, from a merely academic perspective, all of these arguments are relative, epistemological constructions of the same titanic debate, and a global, rapidly growing, middle-class population suggests that this is sure to continue.

What does not seem to be mixed is the notion of human worth. If human life is valuable, and indeed, the consensus in this AIDS debate concedes that it is, and if saving lives and overcoming the “black plague”—as one Ugandan youth described the virus--should come before profit or ideology or elements of faith, then why is it that 25 years into the epidemic, we’re not even at the point of curbing it, let alone close to eradicating it?

Depending on whom you talk to at this conference, the answer is sure to be different. And the answer will continue to change as new treatments are rolled out, and with new international trade agreements in flux. From what I’ve heard, it seems like we’re finally moving in the right direction. Positive statistical evidence from a recent UNAIDS report also suggests faint glimmers of improvement.

No matter the state of our efforts, however, at least one thing is assured: there will be angry, impassioned activists in whichever direction the AIDS response travels; demanding more minority participation, chastising anything short of uni versal access to drugs, steadfast in their belief that saving human life should come before all else. As the TAC members left the press conference today to go “tear down” the South African government’s booth, they sang together: it was a beautiful, mournful song which echoed out of the media center and into the main halls of the convention center.

The world’s response to AIDS is much better because of people such as Sipho Mthathi. Activists are just as necessary now as they were during the beginnings of the epidemic, so many years ago. And, let us hope, not too many years ahead. Enough life has been shed for my generation; I dare not to think what AIDS may bode for that of my children.

" and focus on minimizing jargon when talking about fighting the pandemic.

The representative from DFID, as usual, focused on harmonization and system strengthening as the way to maximize the impact that financing has at the country level.

The representative from the US government disagreed with Mr. Feachem's view, and stated that it was better to have different organizations working together, instead of one central institution. He said that it is "against human nature" to just have one central organization.

In conclusion, this was a very interesting meeting. I was happy to see these decision-makers talk about international financing to fight HIV/AIDS at the national level, but was disappointed that young people were not mentioned at all. For ex ample, I think young people might have some good ideas in creating delivery mechanisms that benefit non-formal education programs at the country-level, which could be a core part of country coordinating mechanisms (CCMs). Oh well... We still have a long way to go in advocating for young people!

uld be the Youth Pavilion. But, this is also where the YouthForce media team has their work station. Deadlines come and go, blogs are posted or forgotten about, articles are written and interviews are uploaded. All surrounded by the chaos that makes up the Pavilion. The media team also has access to the Media Room through the Main Conference. This space is more structured, formal, and everyone generally has the same focus, basically, a more productive environment overall.

But what fun would that be? If we are reporting for the YouthForce, the best place to be is right here, in the middle of it all. Even if that means needing to read through everything once or twice more because of the noise level, or being distracted by the belly dancers twelve feet away, or a group singing. There is no other place that would better to capture the energy of it all then right here.

hat much more vulnerable. There are also legal and cultural barriers to talking to youth about sex and sexuality.

I would like to challenge more groups working on LGBT issues to include more youth in their work. Although major challenges may make this difficult; involving more young people is critical to make real social changes on these issues. The queer youth movement can be very powerful, if it is provided a seat at the table.

Also, there is a huge lack of information on youth, g/l/b/t/q, HIV/AIDS, internationally. At Advocates for Youth (www.advocatesforyouth.org) we have a lot of information and support for these issues both within the United Sates and internationally; we have a g/l/b/t/q youth website www.youthresrouce.com with information and onl ine peer education. Our resources domestically are much more extensive and we would love to receive more information about g/l/b/t/q internationally. Does anyone have resources they would like to share that address these issues?

d the evolution of a high-school student targeting, volunteer-led program to include messaging within sports programs, including a soccer league specifically geared towards female student involvement. The education is not limited to HIV, instead including environmental and leadership training, with the expectation that “to whom much is given, much is expected.”

Katrina, a Namibian participant in the program, spoke of the personal impact the programming had on she and her peers.

“I know participants who have been involved in drugs and alcohol in the past, but who have stopped since joining the program,” she said.

Selecting a group of volunteers, one workshop leader had them play several of the games actually used in the field to teach key positive living lessons around the HIV theme, helping to reduce stigma and open lines of discussion.

During one game, the eight volunteers had to find a way to all stand on a single sheet of newspaper, an exercise designed to build open communication and teamwork. Another exercise had a group of volunteers form a hand-linked chain through which a ‘cat’ had to chase a ‘mouse,’ representing high-risk behavior or HIV’s pursuit of a young individual.

Kitso, a young man from Botswana, told the crowd about the positive impact the program had on his life. Before joining, he had gotten mixed up in a local gang in one of the poorest parts of the country, one involved in violent, criminal activity. Following membership in the soccer game program, he managed t o change ways.

“If it wasn’t for these soccer games, I would be in prison now,” he told the audience.

Following this, a presentation of the use of soccer stars and child games offered similar approaches and results. Combining social learning theory with the power of soccer stars in various African nations, the organizer has developed a full-scale, 4-day curriculum for an in-depth children’s workshop, embedding prevention messages in homework and youth-connected metaphor, among other tools.

“Kids teach kids what they think is important,” said the workshop leader.

m’engager pour un cause à défendre au nom de ces differents groupes, mais moi je ne m’identifie pas par rapport à la discrimination. Je veux donner mes efforts et mon temps à tout et je veux faire une différence pour les groupes qui souffrent sans raison. Parce que je ne peux pas changer mon histoire, j’essayerai d’étre sensible et respectueuse en travaillant pour l’àmelioration de la cause humaine.

Merci

search, he revealed that youth who define hip hop as dance or sex are more likely to have more sex in their lives. This doesn’t go without saying? If youth are associating their favourite music and culture with sex, isn’t it reasonable to draw the connection that sex is of interest and importance to them?
But hang on! Not all youth listen to hip hop and certainly the ones who listen to jazz and classic rock and heavy metal also are having sex. Sex is used today to sell just about everything, and no music is immune to this; even young classical artists are pushed in the direction of looking sexy in order to be popular and commercially successful.
Youth have a very strong association with their music – their playlists define them to their friends and what titles you k now often brings you in or easily excludes you from conversations and social circles. This means that certain genres of music become cool, while others wither and die on the fringe of teenage society. And to some, what is unknown is the coolest of all.
So does certain music mean more sex? From a purely a-scientific standpoint, I would say that turning on hip hop before going on a date is not going to mean a different end to the evening. But cultural socialization may cause certain youth that listen to a common set of artists to exhibit sexually similar behaviour.
Maybe one day the ones who listen to polka will be having all the sex.

ciation for the Advancement of Colored People, used the comparison of apartheid to