Supporting Young African Women to Participate in the ESA Symposium
------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends,
Hello, and I am re-posting this in case it was not seen the first time
around, and there are people who might like to contribute in some
way.
With many heartfelt thanks and all best wishes,
Janet Feldman
mailto:kaippg@earthlink.net
--
Urgent Appeal: Supporting Young African Women to Participate in the
ESA Symposium
Theme: HIV/AIDS, Education and Youth Survival: Strategies and Actions
As the date for the Eastern and Southern African Symposium on Young
Women and AIDS (26-30 November 2002) draws nearer, there is concern
amongst young women applicants that they may not participate in the
event if the IYSCA Secretariat (the organising team) does not support
them to participate in the Symposium. In this regard, we would like
to appeal to anyone who has information on how these eligible par-
ticipants can get support to contact us.
Although fundraising efforts are continuing, there is a concern among
applicants that the organisers are not doing enough to identify do-
nors that can support the initiative. We would like to ensure all
young women and men out there that we are doing the best we can to
ensure that students from universities, and young women and men from
CBOs and youth movements participate. We have sent Proposals to a
wide range of donors, including UNAIDS, who we hope will respond
positively in the next few weeks. So far, we are glad to report that
UNIFEM (Eastern and Central Africa) and UNFPA (Kenya)have agreed to
fund a fraction of the budget. We are hoping that other donors will
follow suit and thus support your participation.
An excerpt from a 15-year-old applicant from Southern Africa read:
"It seems to me I will never be able to participate in any of these
conferences despite the fact I am intelligent, hard working, I help
orphans all over Africa, and I am willing to make presentations. It
looks like your conferences are only for the students from elite
families. What do they know about watching their village die of AIDS,
what do they know about hunger, what do they know about living with-
out running water, electricity, and medical care? How can they speak
for me and how can they speak for homeless children? It seems to me
my voice and the voice of other African students/youth will never be
realized, simply because we do not have financial resources or have
the "right" connections. No wonder Africa is dying a slow death."
This concern is just one in many that we continue receiving each day,
even as we encourage participants to seek local avenues of fundrais-
ing. Most of them insist that as young people, most agencies would
not support them because they do not have "connection" and do not be-
long to big agencies. If, indeed, this is true, then we are witness-
ing a sad situation in which the most affected category of Africa's
population - young women - may actually be least represented at the
ESA Symposium. This will be most unfortunate.
As the organisers of the ESASYA Symposium, we recognise that it is
possible that we may have overlooked other sources of support during
the fundraising process for the ESA Symposium. In this regard, we
would like anyone who has information on other sources of funding for
an initiative such as this to let us know. If you are a do-
nor/development agency and can support a young woman to participate,
please let us know: Our list of requests for support from young women
in the region and beyond is overflowing.
As the organisers of the forthcoming Second International Youth and
Students Conference on AIDS, we are also requesting that in order for
us to maximise the participation of young women and men, we need sup-
port. Organisations working with young women and men also need sup-
port to implement preparatory activities that they may come up with.
We hope that all youth-friendly individuals and organisations will
respond very positively to this SOS.
--
The Conference Secretariat
II International Youth and Students Conference on HIV/AIDS (IYSCA '03)
P.O Box 13542-00100
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254-2-245311
Tel: +254-733-568-063/844-138
Tel: +254-722-297-194
mailto:iysca@iysca.org
http://www.iysca.org
--
To send a message to AFRO-NETS, write to: afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe afro-nets OR unsubscribe afro-nets
To contact a person, send a message to: afro-nets-help@usa.healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.afronets.org