November 23 - Members of the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS, a youth-led, UNAIDS and UNFPA-supported alliance of 2500 young leaders and adult allies in 100 countries worldwide, are organizing events for World AIDS Day.

Action against Abbott laboratories

On 26 April student campaigners from People & Planet and Student Stop AIDS groups joined a Global Day of Action to demand that pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories stops denying people in poor countries lifesaving drugs.

The Africa Youth and Adolescent Network on Population and Development (AfriYAN) and its national affiliates in 38 African countries has followed the Male Circumcision and HIV prevention debate, for a long time and hosted a number of debates & dialogues to come up with an African youth perspective on Male Circumcision.

SCORA, the Standing Committee on Reproductive Health including AIDS, mainly focuses on topics related to HIV/AIDS, prevention and sexuality in a broad view. The two main projects carried out in SCORA are activities around December 1st: World-AIDS-Day, and prevention programs for high-school-students.

Please see below, World AIDS Day Statement, written on behalf of the IFMSA Team of Officials by Mr. Samer Abi Chaker, Director on Reproductive Health inlc. AIDS.

Volunteer students from many countries including Myanmar, Vietnam, China, Bangladesh, Germany and Thailand at Shinawatra University (SIU) organised events aimed at raising awareness on HIV prevention and increasing positive attitude towards HIV/AIDS positive people.

Sex…Uncovered is a new MTV Staying Alive global series of shorts.

Staying Alive is MTV’s international HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention award winning campaign. Staying Alive’s mission is to educate young people on issues of HIV/AIDS in a bid for them to protect themselves from becoming infected with HIV and therefore stem the spread of HIV. Staying Alive also aims to support an enabling environment for those who are already infected with HIV, free from stigma and discrimination. One of the key ways of educating young people is by engaging them in the issues. Staying Alive seeks to empower young people to open up channels of communication, with their peers, their relationship partners, their family and friends, by dialoguing on issues that relate to their love life, sexuality, sex and indeed HIV/AIDS. Staying Alive is a safe space for self-expression on the issues of sex and relationships that directly impact our audience.

Summary of the 2008 high-level meeting on the comprehensive review of the progress achieved in realising the Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS (United Nations Headquarters, 10-12 June 2008)

PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday 5th August 2008 – Today, MTV Networks International (MTVNI) and MySpace announced the launch of Untold Stories, a ground-breaking, interactive story-writing competition. The initiative brings a number of potentially risky HIV-related scenarios to life, in the form of creative narrative. This unique approach aims to capture the attention of today’s youth, who are increasingly at risk of contracting the virus. Shockingly, in 2007 those aged 15-24 accounted for nearly half of all new infections.

The Youth Rapporteur will play a critical role in documenting and promoting young people’s participation and achievements at the 15th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA).