Yvonne Akoth - RFP East Africa

I am a project assistant and a peer educator in an adolescent reproductive health project implemented by Kenya Girl Guide Association. I am also a member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and a member of the Horn of Africa Youth Network. I have 7 years of experience working with youth on HIV/AIDS, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Enterprise development. I speak English and Swahili, but am also taking Spanish classes. My interest lays in international development especially in Africa.

It is of vital importance to me that young people in my region have relevant and adequate information on HIV/AIDS because it will help in drastically reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Eastern Africa. In order to effectively address HIV/AIDS issues among youth in my region, I intend to organize and/or facilitate trainings in at least 6 rural towns in the region as GYCA RFP. I want to include as many young people from urban towns and cities as possible. Hopefully those who own mobile phones and computers with internet access will join GYCA! I intend to bring NPFs in my region and few active GYCA members together for a workshop to strategize ways of addressing HIV/AIDS in the region and join efforts in implementing an advocacy project in the region. Creating and organizing awareness campaigns on the protection of young people's rights in regards to sexual and reproductive health rights is also in my 2011 agenda. I intend to form links with National AIDS bodies, national youth councils, and local, regional and international youth serving organizations (especially those dealing with HIV/AIDS) as it will strengthen GYCA's initiatives in address HIV/AIDS in the region.

To ensure that young people in my region have comprehensive, objective, non-biased, gender and youth specific information on HIV/AIDS, I intend to spearhead the development of an information pack that contains HIV/AIDS knowledge and information on where youth friendly health services can be accessed. This would include the location of youth friendly VCTs, health centres that offer post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) etc.; this way, I will ensure that young people have adequate information on HIV/AIDS and are not only aware of services that are available to them, but where they can also access them easily.

As an RFP, I am happy I have been given the responsibility to work with and inspire as many young people as possible and engage them in many HIV/AIDS initiatives. I have made a personal commitment to change the world around me by actively taking part in ensuring the reduction in the spread of HIV/AIDS and I intend to look at every challenge as a stepping stone to greater heights.

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Tyler Spencer - RFP North America

Before getting involved in HIV prevention in the US, I worked as a volunteer in South Africa during my summer breaks for 3 years. While in South Africa, I trained professional soccer players and community leaders to facilitate sports-based HIV prevention programs for 12-14 year old kids. When I returned home to Washington DC, I learned that AIDS was ravaging communities’ right in my backyard. My hometown had an HIV prevalence rate that was higher than Port au Prince, Haiti, and is comparable to some Sub-Saharan African countries. That's when I got involved in the response to HIV in the United States.

In response to my local epidemic, I founded Athletes United for Social Justice, and organization that uses sports as a platform for social change. Our first program, The Grassroots Project, uses a sports-based curriculum to empower at-risk Washington D.C. youth to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and the stigma surrounding it. We also coordinate an international HIV education exchange between youth in DC and youth in South Africa. The program is based on GrassrootSoccer's model.

I graduated in 2008 from the University of Virginia with a degree in International Health and Sustainable Development. In November 2009, I was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and have been studying Evidence Based Social Intervention at Oxford since October 2010. I am very excited about the potential for young people to have a big impact at the International AIDS Conference 2012, and look forward to hosting it in our nation's capital. My goal over the next 18 months is to mobilize GYCA-North America to have a major presence at 2012. I recently met with one of the IAS organizers, and she could not stop talking about how much she wants young people to be heard!

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Muge Cevik

I have been working for the past six years in the HIV and Sexual Health field in many capacities, one of which includes my role as GYCA's Regional Focal Point for Western Europe. I studied medicine at Ege University Medical School in Turkey and received my Master's in STIs and HIV at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Currently, I'm living in London where I work as a medical doctor focusing on HIV management and drug and vaccine trials.

In Western Europe, national epidemics are concentrated among key populations at higher risk, especially men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and immigrants. Additionally, since the late 1990s, striking increases in rates of syphilis and gonorrhea and rises in HIV-related risk behaviors have occurred among homosexual and bisexual men in Western Europe as well as in other parts of the industrialized world.

As GYCA Western European region our activities will be focused on spreading the facts on the epidemic. First of all, we want to highlight the misconception that Western Europe is not as affected by HIV as other regions of the world. We will be focusing on collecting important data about the epidemic in the region, particularly at the country level. Our goal is to produce fact sheets for each country in the region during the first quarter of 2011, to be shared with other organizations and members of the GYCA network. Secondly, a map of youth networks working in the Western European region will be created. To make this happen, I will be working with our National Focal Points on finding and contacting youth organizations focusing on HIV and Sexual Health issues in the region. Finally, we hope to gather NFPs for an in-person meeting, allowing them to come together and share knowledge and experiences as to enhance the work that has been done in the region so far.

As the RFP of the region, I believe that with the group of well-educated, passionate and highly experienced NFPs, the Western European region will grow to be a very powerful resource for GYCA.

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Project Management E-Course in French

For the first time ever, GYCA's popular Project Management e-Course was run completely in French this winter! The course was open to francophone GYCA members and MTV Staying Alive Foundation grantees alike from across the globe. A total of ten participants signed up for the inaugural class, representing organizations doing incredible work in Togo, DRC, Burundi, Bénin and the Ivory Coast.

The participants all agreed that the course material was not only challenging but also incredibly beneficial not only to their current projects, but to building their careers as well. Some of the topics discussed included what makes a good project manager, the importance and best practices of community consultation, how to deal with and overcome crises within projects, how to handle finances, the keys to conducting effective trainings, efficient project evaluation, and so much more!

Here's a glimpse at some of the phenomenal individuals who took part in the course and the amazing work they're doing:

Soro Tatuogo Gael is 26 years old and a former GYCA Regional Focal Point! Soro is from the Ivory Coast and is fully fluent in both English and French. He has a very broad work history; from being a founding member and president of Enfants d'Afrique, to working with the Association of Women Jurists of the Ivory Coast, he's done it all!

Akpaki Lobéda is a 25 year old student attending Abomey-Calavi University, the biggest University in Bénin, majoring in Sociology and Anthropology. Lobéda also works for ESSD AKOREDE (Échanges Services Sociaux et Dévéloppement) where she works to combat HIV/AIDS in local colleges.

Makene Fereza Balebanga graduated from l'Université Espoir d'Afrique with a degree in Social Service and is now working as a project coordinator with Réseau SOS Femmes en Détresse in his home country of Burundi. At 22 years old, Makene is already very accomplished, having initiated school and church groups to positively educate communities on HIV prevention, as well as starting a theatre troupe that uses puppetry and art to teach youth about HIV.

The projects that all of the participants are working on currently run the gamut from a football tournament paired with HIV education campaigns in Togo, to a peer training program for sex workers in the DRC, but they all have common threads - the people behind the projects are truly passionate about combating HIV in their communities and are now even more confident in their project management skills, thanks to GYCA!

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