Youth AIDS Day: Global Justice and GYCA Hold
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Youth Events Worldwide
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 25, 2005
Healy Thompson 202-487-4956
http://www.studentaidsmarch.org/
Youth Around the World Hold Global Day of Action to End AIDS
New York, NY. On February 26, 2005, youth around the world will
join in action against the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Global Jus-
tice, a US-based grassroots student-activist organization has
worked with the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GYCA) to
give the dayYouth AIDS Day--global reach. With 8,000 people
dying every day of AIDS and 15,000 becoming newly infected with
HIV, the only hope we have for defeating the pandemic is to join
together globally, explained Healy Thompson, coordinator of
Global Justices Student Global AIDS Campaign. Youth are at the
center of the disease and we will be at the forefront of combat-
ing it.
Youth AIDS Day events will take place in Bangladesh, Cameroon,
Canada, Egypt, Ghana, Guyana, India, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, United Kingdom,
the United States, and Zambia. The events vary from mass marches
to HIV/AIDS testing and counseling, and from letter writing cam-
paigns to awareness seminars. In Mansoura Egypt, the Mansoura
Scientific Student Association has planned a seminar discussion
on how AIDS affects women and girls. In Jaipur, India, represen-
tatives from various NGOs and youth leaders will meet to discuss
the mobilization of youths against AIDS in the state of Rajast-
han; they will draft a memorandum to send to the State govern-
ment detailing the current situation and the way forward on
HIV/AIDS. In the United States, students will converge in Wash-
ington D.C. for a Student March Against AIDS, demanding that the
government take decisive action to end HIV/AIDS.
Our actions are designed both to raise awareness and provoke a
response from youth, but also to scale-up commitment to the
fight against HIV/AIDS by Governments, Community Leaders, and
Families. It is time that youth take action to demand an in-
crease in youth-friendly HIV/AIDS information and services, and
that we work side-by-side with adults to make sure th4bese de-
mands are met, commented GYCA co-founder Joya Banerjee.
More than half of the 5 million people worldwide infected each
year by HIV are youth aged 24 and younger. These new infections
occur disproportionately among young women. In many situations,
youth lack the information, education, and services necessary to
protect themselves from infection. In addition, the vast major-
ity of people living with HIV/AIDS, including young people, do
not have access to life-saving treatment and care. People do
not have to contract HIV and they do not have to die of AIDS,
commented Thompson. We look at our governments relative inac-
tion and wonder what our future will hold Its time to stop
treating HIV/AIDS as an accounting issue and start treating it
as the moral crisis it is.
Youth AIDS Day marks the launch of a global movement of youth
committed to seeing an end to AIDS and committed to being at the
forefront of making that happen. Youth AIDS day is an opportu-
nity for youth around the globe to unite in solidarity against a
disease which deeply affects us all. We wont stand quietly
watching our friends and our families are dying, said the
Global Youth Coalition on AIDS regional focal point for Canada,
David Suk.
Youth AIDS Day is the first major joint campaign that GYCA has
coordinated, and is giving the this movement unprecedented mo-
mentum.
The Global Youth Coalition on AIDS (GYCA) grew out of discus-
sions among youth participants at the 2004 International AIDS
Conference in Bangkok. GYCA aims to strengthen and empower the
youth movement against HIV/AIDS by networking youth leaders and
adult allies worldwide. Today, there are more than 530 members
all from various youth-serving networks and organizations.
For interviews or further information:
--
Joya Banerjee
Co-founder of the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS
Tel.: +1-212-297-5097
mailto:Joya.banerjee@gmail.com
Healy Thompson National Coordinator of Global Justices Stu-
dent Global AIDS Campaign
Tel. +1-202-487-4956
mailto:healythompson@sbcglobal.net