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About |
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What is it?
The Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GYCA) is a youth-led, UNAIDS and UNFPA-supported alliance of over 1000 youth leaders and adult allies in HIV/AIDS. GYCA empowers young people with the skills, knowledge, resources, and credibility they need to scale up HIV/AIDS interventions in their communities. In particular, GYCA prioritizes:- technical assistance and capacity building
- networking and sharing of best practices
- advocacy training and political advocacy campaigns
- preparation for international conferences
Why is it important to young people?
Over half of the 3 million people infected with HIV each year are youth aged 15-24, and they are overwhelmingly young women. Current prevention and treatment programs do not take into account the specific needs of young people who are at risk for infection due to poverty, a lack of employment, lack of education, gender inequality and sexual violence, and injecting drug use. Young people are working in their communities worldwide as peer educators, with street children and slum dwellers, with sex workers and injecting drug users, and with people living with HIV/AIDS. They are doing so efficiently and cost-effectively, but often lack the resources to scale-up their initiatives and ensure that they are sustainable.
Moreover, young people need to be involved in creating the policies and programs on HIV/AIDS that relate, overwhelmingly, to them. They need to ensure that programs are evidence-based and realistic for young people’s needs and circumstances. Young people are best positioned to advocate to their countries’ decision-makers to create youth-friendly clinics, to provide life skills-based education, and to increase treatment access.
How can young people get involved?
To join GYCA please visit www.youthaidscoalition.org/join.html. Members participate in a capacity-building e-forum, discussion board, add events to our global calendar, and avail of four free E-courses on Political Advocacy, Project Management, Grant Proposal Writing and Fundraising, and Intensive Preparing for Toronto workshop. GYCA members can learn how to raise funding for their initiatives and how to find others working in their countries to support their work and collaborate with. They can join national and regional teams to implement political advocacy campaigns and events, and to build the Global Directory of youth HIV/AIDS initiatives worldwide. Members participate in international events and conferences such as the special sessions at the UN General Assembly and the International AIDS Conferences.
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