The International AIDS Conference taking place, this year in Toronto, has attracted nearly 25,000 scientists, policy makers, activists and HIV positive people. They may come from different walks of life but they all have the same goal: to combat the AIDS pandemic.
Among the 25,000 are over 1000 young people, from different countries and backgrounds – they are ensuring the youth voice is heard. This is vital seeing as over 50% of new infections are in people under 25. The youth have had the chance to learn, share and implement projects – this is great as they can take this knowledge back to their local communities.
The young people are ensuring that the meeting will be helpful for them and are hoping that what they learn will bring about sustainable results.
Suleiman Moshi, a delegate from Tanzania who is working with the Tanzanian Youth Network (TYN) says, “We have to use this as a bridge, to learn and share as well as ensure we implement our action plans when we get back into our countries. I hope that since we have been very involved at this conference we can achieve our goals.”
Tamara Babao, a delegate from Papua New Guinea who works with the Oxfam International Youth Parliament as an action partner, supports the steps the decision makers are taking - they’re involving the youth in their policy decisions. This is a great example of how this conference can bring social change. Tamara says, “Most of the youth are eager to learn and act positively, but the involvement sometimes looks hard, but I feel this is a great sign that youth can change the world.”
Oguaka Raphael, a delegate from Nigeria encourages his fellow youth to attempt to make real changes in their communities. He tells them to act positively and use talent and creativity like music to spread the word. He feels that most of the youth can be reached through music and the arts.
Over 1000 of the people who got the International AIDS scholarship, of them most are young, there are also a large proportion of people from developing countires.
Youth have, so far, gained a lot from the conference – they have been active participants- this has largely been made possible by the Toronto 2006 Youth Force, they did a great job organising the pre-youth conference and have ensured youth participation throughout AIDS 2006.
