Youth Against AIDS
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I am sorry to crash on to this listserv with no invitation, my name is
Leo Metcalf and I am writing to you on behalf of Youth Against AIDS
(YAA), an organization of African youth set up to spread awareness on
AIDS and get our voices and views heard, both in Africa and on the in-
ternational scene:
http://www.worldvoices.org/aids
We are in need of some assistance for a project we are undertaking.
YAA is going to write a newsletter on the problem on AIDS and HIV
amongst youth. The newsletter will be sent out on various Listserves,
and also printed out and distributed widely. The series will portray
different youth, giving their opinions of the AIDS crises and how it
has affected them. We are looking primarily for young people who are
actively involved in some program or organization fighting AIDS. This
can be in awareness spreading, or medical work or whatever it may be.
We are also interested in portraying people in organizations who are
seeking to deal specifically with the problem of AIDS and HIV amongst
youth (Such as Straight Talk).
I am therefore asking for help in getting contacts in the field for
help with getting the series under way.
We will be very grateful for any help anyone can give me with this pro-
ject, and would also be very interested in hearing from people wishing
to participate in the conference we are going to hold next year.
Many thanks for your time and help.
Best regards,
Leo Metcalf
(Youth Against Aids)
mailto:leometcalf@yahoo.com
http://www.worldvoices.org/aids
PS: Below is a more in-depth description of the series and conference
if you are interested.
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The Youth Against Aids project will be undertaken in two parts, the
first part will be the writing of a series to be sent out on the advo-
cacy project listserv, portraying a number of young people in Africa
affected by AIDS or working on the problem of AIDS amongst youth. This
will be done in an attempt to personify the problem of AIDS, which is
not often done. At the same time, YAA will also lend its hand to NGO
networking for groups working against AIDS around Africa, and depending
on the interest generated, may set up an active listserv for people and
organizations involved. The second part of the project will be a con-
ference to be held in August 2001 in Nairobi Kenya for Youth on the
Problem of Aids. The result will be an action plan, under the form of a
'Youth Declaration for Action Against AIDS', to be given to various Af-
rica heads of state and international organizations. It will also be
printed in various local African newspapers.
Let me now briefly describe the series itself. The help needed now is
in finding people around Africa to portray in the series. The object of
the series will be Youth Against AIDS, this however does not limit us
to simply portraying Youth, it will also focus on elder people working
in different civil society organizations or media groups specifically
on the issue of youth and AIDS. The series will be divided up into 5 or
6 different sections, these are temporarily:
1/The impact on the family - Orphans - Perhaps a Nun working at one of
the many orphanages - The AZT issue - Transmission of the HIV virus
through Breastfeeding, mother to child infection - Issue of women aban-
doned by their husband, or someone abandoned by their family
2/The Culture/traditions issue - Traditional beliefs and attitudes, a
worker who has lost his job because of discrimination, families denial
of Aids as the reason for their children's death - Traditional healer -
Homosexuality
3/The gender issue: Girls/boys - The sugar daddies issue - The Prosti-
tutes issue - Boys feeling they need to prove their manhood by having
sex...
4/The Medical work - Nurses - Scientists
5/The awareness, media work - Radio directed at Youth - Newspaper di-
rected at Youth - People working in education, youth groups training
other youth to spread awareness
All these sections may seem very specific, but they are liable to
change, and the examples given are simply something to give you a vague
idea of what we are interested in. Please feel free to send me your
opinions on what might more interesting or better sections. For the mo-
ment I am interested in basically anyone, either between 15 and 25 and
directly or indirectly affected by AIDS, or simply people working to
fight the AIDS problem in that ages group. Any youth group who are
helping to fight the pandemic are especially interesting to us.
Once I have managed to identify the 35 or so people I will be portray-
ing, I will then send them a brief and very simple questionnaire and
will ask them to send a photo of themselves, to be put beside the rele-
vant text.
Please therefore send me any contact you might have of people you deem
might be interesting to portray in the series. Many thanks for all your
help, once again our website address is:
http://www.worldvoices.org/aids
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