GYCA at the 3rd Pan African Youth Leadership Summit, December 20th – 22nd 2012 in West Africa

To commemorate the 2012 World AIDS Day Event, GYCA partnered with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Nigeria with the hope of expanding accessibility to HIV/AIDS services to the Nigerian community.

Given the fact that less than 20% of the Nigerian population has tested for HIV, GYCA and AHF's agenda was centered on expanding the frontier of support that would encourage more young people to know their HIV status. With three AHF testing sites in Abuja, Nigeria during the WAD week, over 17,000 people got tested for HIV voluntarily. Additionally, GYCA helped in "crowd-sourcing" and spreading the advocacy messages through various social media platforms.

An awareness procession/trek was observed as planned for the World AIDS Day event from Eagle Square – Millennium Park, Abuja with fellow young people to raise more awareness on HIV/AIDS.

The NFP in Nigeria (Uzoamaka Nwachukwu) also did a media round-table briefing with the press in Ibada. Also, GYCA state coordinator for the Delta State (Comrade Okonta) did a grassroots advocacy campaign in his state as well.
As the RFP for the West African region, Gabriel Adeyemo took part at the recently concluded 3rd Pan African Youth Leadership Summit, December 20th – 22nd 2012 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Over 250 youth leaders from the five regions of Africa and the Diaspora met in Ouagadougou for this summit, which was hosted by the government of Burkina Faso. GYCA was well represented with the RFP from East Africa and the NFPs from both South Africa and Kenya. As part of the international steering committee that helped plan this summit, he led the declaration drafting team that worked to compile the entirety of the discussion into a request to be used for the final declaration by young people.

The 3rd Pan African Youth Leadership Summit was a medium to equip and allow young leaders to take ownership of the new vision of UNAIDS (CrowdOutAIDS) and issues related to its application as an intervention without stigma and discrimination associated with HIV. It allowed young leaders to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs and post-2015 agenda. The Summit also examined each country's progress in reversing the AIDS epidemic, the achievement of the MDGs, and the prospects for strengthening the efforts of young leaders. Consequently, it helped define the priorities of young leaders on Africa's development programme for the post-2015 MDGs.

The Summit was a great opportunity to network with new friends and leaders in various fields of the MDGs and also to share strategies on how to be successful on a global scale.

Read more

International Youth Violence Prevention Conference, November 6th – 7th, 2012 in Tanzania

Youth advocacy in violence prevention reached greater heights when GYCA participated in the International Youth Violence Prevention Conference in Dar Es Salam from the 6th to the 8th of November 2012. The Conference was sponsored by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention (CJCP), the Hive, the Open Society Foundation, and the Open Society Initiatives for Southern and Eastern Africa among other partners.

The conference openly discussed and deliberated on the issues of Parenting, Early Childhood Development, Employment Opportunities of Youth, Gender and Violence Prevention, Youth in Post-Conflict and Fragile states as well as existing Data and Evidence. These key topics opened the floor for GYCA representatives to share their views as well as to speak on behalf of young people in the conference. GYCA was privileged to have four of its member from the region attend. They included: GYCA member from Nigeria Rashidi Williams, who spoke on the state sanctioned violence amongst Nigerian Youths with special focus on same sex relationships and marriages in Nigeria, Dr. Vincent Ndebwanimana and Nezerwa Methode from Rwanda who spoke on including boys as allies in the fight against gender based violence and using youth arts for health and environment sustainability respectively. Yvonne Akoth, RFP for East Africa also participated in the conference. She spoke on the need for society to speak out on the rights of girls and young women as well as to empower girls and young women to know their rights as a prerequisite for eliminating violence targeted at them.

Yvonne who also represents GYCA in the World Health Organization –Violence Prevention Alliance (WHO – VPA) met and spoke with Ms Berit Kieselbach, WHO technical officer in the Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability in Geneva. They discussed the need to engage young people in addressing all forms of violence, especially those that put them at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Ms. Kieselbach mentioned that a step towards this need would be done by including GYCA in the Violence Prevention Alliance, Training Technical Working Group, whose mandate is to inform groups on guidelines meant to prevent violence, explore implementation strategies for these guidelines as well as the need to involve youth in various policy and decision making platforms.

This was a once in a lifetime conference where the voices of young people were heard. Young people had the opportunity to engage with researchers, media personnel, government officials, the police force, health professionals as well as politicians to ensure that violence is eliminated. It was agreed that violence targeted at boys and girls as well as young men and women is a cause as well as a consequence of HIV/AIDS. It is with this in mind that GYCA will play a key role.

Read more

GYCA Looks Forward to 2013 in the Caribbean

During his first six months at GYCA, Ian Royer began a search for National Focal Points for each territory in the Caribbean that can work to raise the level of awareness of HIV/AIDS.

It is GYCA's pleasure to officially introduce Ms. Stephany Francisca and Gwendell Marcelina as the new NFPs for GYCA in Curacao. Their tenure will be a momentous one as they are very willing to start up initiatives that are impactful and can draw insights into struggles of young people in the Dutch Territories. They can be reached at stephany.gyca@imsroyer.com and gwendell.gyca@imsroyer.com respectively.

The plans for 2013 are very simple:

1) Quarter 1 of 2013 – Install NFPS in the English, French, Dutch and Spanish Speaking Caribbean by partnering with the United Nations Information Centre, UNAIDS and the Diplomatic Corps

2) Quarter 2 of 2013 – Develop a fund raiser to lend support to GYCA with a focus on engaging the Caribbean Diaspora and regional media

3) Quarter 4 of 2013 – Develop systematic World AIDS Day Action Plans with each NFP for December 2013

4) Quarter 4 of 2013 – Create a forum for all NFPs to meet to plan 2014 as a holistic and comprehensive plan of action for 2014

Additionally, we hope to gain more Caribbean Members to GYCA to make use of the many services we offer young people in the fight against HIV. How can you help with this? If you are from the Caribbean or know Caribbean young leaders that wish to function as NFPs have them email ian@gyca.org!

Thank you for the continued support and we look forward to working with you towards an AIDS-Free Generation!

Read more

5th African Youth Sexuality Institute and Conference on Sexual Health and Rights, September 19th-21st, Namibia

The 5th African Youth Sexuality Institute and Conference on Sexual Health and Rights took place in Namibia this year, through the support of the African Union Commission, office of Senior Programmes and Partnership Experts. GYCA's RFP of South Africa, Mawethu Zita was invited to participate in drafting a final document of AU and Young People from across Africa. The 5th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights was hosted by the Namibia Planned Parenthood Association (NAPPA), an affiliate member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) under the auspices of the African Federation for Sexual Health and Rights. The conference theme was "Sexual Health and Rights in Africa: Where are we?" This conference discussed the status of sexual health and rights in Africa with a particular focus on women, girls, adolescents, and youth. Efforts were made to ensure that many constituent groups and stakeholders engage in learning exchange around policy and programme management including financing for sexual health. Issues surrounding young people were in the centre including the popular topic of ending girl child marriages. For more information, please visit www.africasexuality.org

Read more