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Young Women Empowerment Campaign on HIV
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On 9 August 1956, about 20,000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa to protest against legislation aimed at tightening the apartheid government's control over the movement of black women in urban areas. This has inspired GYCA and Pan African Student Movement of Azania (PASMA) to bring together 160 young women and 40 young men on the 20th of August 2011 to protest against HIV stigmatisation, HIV discrimination and HIV and AIDS related deaths in South Africa. 101 young people, mostly young women, became agents of change by testing and knowing their HIV status.
Zandile Mqwathi, GYCA's National Focal Point for South Africa, and Khoison Sonti of PASMA managed to organise this event and invited guest speakers including Sergeant Thabitha Maphanga from the South African Police Services. Ms. Maphanga encouraged young women to speak out against all abuses including sexual abuse and shared her own personal experience as a survivor of abuse. Mrs Matebogo Mampane from Soul City Institute facilitated a dialogue which gave the participants an opportunity to engage on their social challenges, particularly dealing with HIV/AIDS.
Since then, young people have requested a collaboration of sectors working on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights and related fields of work to join together to send a common message to various communities in similar age ranges. The nature of this event was well welcomed by the community and has led to another partnership between GYCA and Butterfly Young Women's Organization (BTYWO) to host the same event (Young Women Empowerment Campaign) in Winterveldt Multi-purpose Hall, Mabopane on the 8th October 2011. It is expected to attract about 100 rural young women who are mainly the participants from around the Communities of Winterveldt, Mabopane and Hammanskral. This campaign will be contributing to address MDG #3 (Promote Gender equality and empower women) and MDG #6 (To combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases).
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New York, New York: 6 Words and An Empire State of Mind - by Jermaine Spencer
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Any previous thoughts I had about how my first trip to New York would be a vacation were dashed as soon as Sydney said, "Well let's talk about GYCA history." With these six words all hopes for fun, smiles and hanging out with other Regional Focal Points (RFPs) in the penthouse of a Manhattan high-rise just a couple of blocks from major New York City landmarks (Broadway, the Empire State Building, Times Square, etc.), came to an end. Or so I thought! It is true that those six words shocked me back into the reality that I and my fellow RFPs were here to work and help chart the future course of GYCA. However, what ultimately happened was a culturally rich, instructive and empowering two days that cannot be found within the pages of any published guidebook on New York City.
16 Hours is not a long time to strategically plan the direction of an organization, especially during possibly the greatest period of economic difficulty our generation has ever experienced. Yet, as young people who are naturally optimistic and visionary, some great ideas emerged from our discussions. One such idea focused on the development of an alumni programme to bridge the gap between persons who age out of the GYCA system and those who remain. This suggestion was developed as a response to the recognition that much institutional memory and capacities are lost when persons age out. Furthermore, incoming GYCA members and RFPs can benefit from the networking opportunities and continue to leverage the tremendous talents and skillsets of alumni towards personal and organizational development.
Other ideas that emerged during the working session focused on strengthening the organizational capacities of GYCA. For instance, standardization of email addresses for RFPs could ensure continuity once a RFP term had ended. The most exciting proposal that emerged was of that of GYCA partnering with a celebrity or a member of a Royal Family to raise the profile of the entity. This would give the organization a higher level of visibility and significantly promote the tremendous global work that is already being done. In addition, such a partnership could be used to attract new donors and stabilize the financial viability of the entity.
In the end, the training was a great experience with bittersweet moments. On one hand, we celebrated Lindsay's birthday with cupcakes but had to say goodbye to Reshma! All in all, the RFP training was a great opportunity for everyone to show how much they care about GYCA now and plan for the future ahead.
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Goodbye Note from Reshma Pattni
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Dear GYCA members, partners, and allies,
It has been an amazing experience working with and being a part of the GYCA team over the last 3+ years. I have learned so much during my time here that has made me a stronger advocate, and I appreciate having connected with so many of you on a personal level as well as working jointly to ensure that youth issues are effectively addressed in the global response to HIV.
When I first began at GYCA, I was leading the E-course and Small Grants program and was inspired and motivated by the work of our members. Many of the e-course graduates and grantees have come into leadership roles themselves, and it has been a joy to work more closely with each of these advocates and activists. Seeing GYCA through our participation in the YouthForce at AIDS 2008 and AIDS 2010, regional AIDS conferences, the International Year of Youth, UNGASS and the High Level Meeting on AIDS, and annual CPD and CSW sessions, I was made aware of the power of youth voices and participation at these events and the role GYCA plays in facilitating this inclusion. Despite the challenges we, like many other NGOs, face as part of the economic crisis and the continuation of limited funds for our work, I am confident that GYCA will bounce back and persist. We must continue to ensure that youth are actively involved and the needs of those most affected populations of youth are addressed in the response.
GYCA's membership and impact continue to grow as part of a strong global HIV response (largely thanks to the excellent work of each of you!), and it has been a privilege to serve you all. The outstanding GYCA team, with staff in the US, Ghana, and Mexico and our unstoppable Regional and National Focal Points throughout the world, will carry on the impressive and important mandate of our network. I look forward to seeing all the great work of GYCA and its members in the coming years.
Warm regards,
Reshma
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ICAAP 10th: Uniting Voices through Unfortunate Events - by Rachel Arinii Judhistari
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"ICAAP is the largest HIV/AIDS Forum in Asia Pacific Region and the second largest one in the world. Also it is a biennial gathering for the release and discussion of scientific, programmatic and policy developments in the global response to the issues of HIV/AIDS. The Co-convener of ICAAPs is the ASAP and UNAIDS. ICAAP promotes opportunities for greater regional collaboration, sharing of ideas amongst people infected and affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemics from across the Asia and the Pacific region and provides regional and national organisations, governments and individual stakeholders with space to enhance their mutual contributions in the response to HIV/AIDS." - ICAAP Website
Remarks:
The conference did not have a lot of participants due to the South Korean government's strict regulations. Drug users, people who were HIV positive, and transgenders were prohibited from obtaining visas. Furthermore, the government seemed to criminalize people who were on oral subtitution treatments that involves methadone. During the conference, the protest from local activists reached its tipping point when the police came to the venue and arrested a Korean activist. Two persons were hospitalized and threateaned by the police. As a result of this incident, other participants of the conference took their protest to the conference organising committee and suggested to boycott the conference if the arrested activist was not released soon. The arrested activist was released the next day.
Pre-conference activity: Community Forum and the break sessions
The Community Forum (CF) historically convened by The Coalition of Asia Pacific Regional Networks on HIV/AIDS (7S) as part of the pre-ICAAP program took place on 24-26 August 2011. The CF consisted of eight individual day-long forums designed to reflect the main concerns of the community and was organized by eight out of ten sub-committees (representing KAPs). These committees composed the Community Committee of the 10th ICAAP Local Organising Committee (LOC) along with an International counterpart. Participants included Civil Society (CS) representatives from the AP region along with some pre-identified experts, donors, other stakeholders, and human rights activists. Community Groups for Forum Breakout Sessions consisted of: Interfaith, Migrants/mobile populations, MSM/LGBT, People using drugs, Sex workers, Women and Girls and Youth.
Youth Forum:
The pre-conference session for young people was attended by 50 participants. One of the aims of the main sessions was to share the initiatives in promoting young people’s SRHR via the HIV/AIDS programme which uses the comprehensive sexuality education model. Furthermore, there was a screening of a documentary film "V talks" which presents young women’s sexuality in three regions of Indonesia.
Community Report Back session:
Some of the main insights from the community report back session are as follows:
- It is clear that rights of young people are abused and denied, not because they are young, but because it is difficult to assert youth rights. Young people have the right to decision-making and the right to voice out youth issues, which is the right to comprehensive sexuality education.
- Acknowledge that treatment is prevention. Young people deserve to have improved access to safer, more affordable, and more effective ARV regimens and prophylaxes, treatment of opportunistic infections and co-infections, and corresponding diagnostics. Eliminating the barriers to youth-friendly services such as lack of resources, stigma and discrimination, punitive laws, illiteracy, and parental consent will benefit everyone affected by HIV, regardless of HIV status. After having a discussion on the previous day, here are youth statements:
- Promote a safe environment free from bullying &discrimination in schools, family or the community due to their diversity, which includes gender, sexuality, status etc. This can be done through 'police', laws, policies etc.
- Provide access to legal, insurance, health, social etc services specific to the needs of young KAP or vulnerable population.
- Demand a mechanism which reports the violation of rights of young KAP & present a report
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In friendship,
