What you choose to wear at the AIDS Conference speaks volumes. I say this because with 26,000 delegates and even more visitors to the Global Village, it is impossible to stop and meet and get to know every concerned AIDS activist that passes by. And so youth have started a trend with BRIGHT yellow t-shirts that blare words such as “SEX” “LISTEN” and “ACCESS”, that identify them as part of the loud and proud youth contingent at the conference this week.
T-shirts aside, I am the proud new vehicle for a condom pin, the latest fashion trend at the XVI International AIDS Conference. If you stop in at the Condom Project’s booth, you can spend 5 minutes getting funky and creative, and decorating a colourful condom with beautiful handmade paper from India and Thailand. The idea behind the endeavour is to get young people looking at, touching, and talking about condoms. And truth be told, they do look pretty great as pins!
After participating in a youth-run session on Monday about youth efforts for the HIV/AIDS fight in Burkina Faso, Malawi, Botswana, and Canada, each attendee was given a clothespin to write on. The message: what you want the world to know. . . As the week progresses, we have been told to pass these pins along in order to spread our messages, share our experiences, and spur on discussions about the things that concern us.
Whereas the youth media team jokingly asked Dr. Piot if he would wear a condom suit to the opening ceremony, I am starting to wonder if we won’t soon see some among the crowd. I’ll keep you posted.
