XVI International AIDS Conference
Youth Report

ACAS International AIDS Conference 2006 Report

By: Ryan T.

Overall I had a very great time at the International AIDS Conference (IAC). I enjoyed every moment while attending the conference and I’m glad I was able to receive this opportunity.

At the start, I felt pretty overwhelmed with all the people. Especially with the long line-up, I wasn’t completely sure where to go at the beginning. It was a bit stressing, but I was able to make it through. What really helped at the beginning was attending the youth orientation session. It was a good place to start to get organized and find out more about the conference. I found it very helpful and encouraging. It also helped myself to find a purpose in what I was doing at the conference. Being alone at the start was intimidating though being in a large space full of more established and older people. I just hoped to learn more.

I did learn a lot. I found myself really interested in the sessions I went to. I was very captivated by what the speakers had to say, especially about issues that other youths face in countries abroad. It made me realize what others might be facing that I don’t have to face. The presentations were very informative and it made me want to do similar possible research in the future.

The Global Village and the Exhibition room were a good break point. It allowed me to explore on my own and find out specific information about different organizations. I was also able to bring home information to read, like books with stories from people living with HIV/AIDS. The shows in the Global Village were also entertaining and gave me some time to rest from the excitement of the IAC.

I’m glad there was another youth delegate from ACAS so I wouldn’t feel so lost or alone. We were able to meet up for some sessions and the company was really nice. It was comforting to know that someone else was there with me in the same boat.

The IAC was a once in a lifetime chance and I feel very lucky that I was able to experience it in my own home city. I had a very good time and enjoyed the opportunity. I felt I gained a lot from this experience and that somewhere in the future the information I learned would somehow collide with what I will do.

The Role of Young People in the Global Response on HIV/AIDS: A Reflection on AIDS 2006 Conference

by Emerich

The AIDS 2006 Conference was such a great opportunity for me to meet new people, both young and old, while equipping ourselves towards educating myself and others in mobilizing ourselves as youth and youth-workers in the fight against AIDS.

The AIDS 2006 organizers have done a great job in focusing on the involvement of youth and youth-workers in the global fight against AIDS. However, I found that there were not much youth delegates in the conference itself.

One of the best Skills Building Workshops that I have attended was the one on “Young Adults Living with HIV (Relationships and Sex)” wherein the facilitators themselves have admitted that they were expecting more young people to attend because the workshop is meant for young adults in the first place; however, majority of the delegates in that workshop were rather adults working with young people.

The interaction between the delegates in that workshop was great because we got to talk about the issues that concerns a lot of young adults about the taboo, discrimination and marginalization of sex that a lot of young people, regardless of their HIV status, face everyday. In terms of sex, the essential message from the workshop, which all of us have agreed upon, was that (safe) sex is the same regardless of one’s HIV status.

Another important workshop that I have been to was the one of the strategies towards empowering youth for economic independence. I think that regardless of the development or underdevelopment of a country, empowering youth, especially young PLWHA’s, is a very important step that every sector of the society should act upon. This is because once we empower ourselves, we become more independent and eventually become more confident and responsible towards making decisions that would affect us all in the short- and long-terms.

In this workshop, I have met people (most of them were adults) who work in NGOs in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, who have shared their success stories towards providing sustainable economic independence for youth, who are both HIV positive and negative, in order to empower the young people towards achieving a more desirable and effective outcome in the end.

What struck me the most in this workshop was from an adult man proclaiming that he does not have to necessarily give up his own rights in order to give rights to young people. What this man has to understand is that rights are not a one-way street.

To this day, youth are still seen as being irresponsible and are not capable of making our own decisions that would ultimately affect us in the end. This goes to show that a lot of adults do not believe in what we, as young people, can do and make decisions for ourselves, that would ultimately affect us in the short and long runs.

To that end, I would like to conclude by citing the two sessions, which I have attended that shows how young adults, such as us in Queer Asian Youth, can make a huge difference for us and for the community at large. These sessions were called, “Young People Control the Future of the Response!” and “Not Just Another Recommendation! Learning from the Leadership of Young People and Positive Youth in the Global Response to HIV/AIDS”.

The most important fact that came out of these workshops is that youth cannot do it alone, without the help of adults, in addressing the concerns that we have pertaining to HIV and AIDS and the responses that we would like to implement. It is then important to note that we, as young adults, should work with adults in responding to HIV/AIDS.

These sessions are crucial for us, young people, to enable us to see and assess ourselves towards a more sustainable global response to HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is a global issue, and as such, we must respond to it globally. This might seem impossible for us to achieve, but working amongst ourselves and with adults in our communities, would make a huge change towards the global fight against AIDS.

As volunteers and members of QAY and ACAS, we have a lot more work to do towards addressing and working with youth because ultimately, the responsibility of the response to HIV/AIDS will rest upon us. It is then important for us to equip ourselves with the knowledge, learn the responsibilities and assess what works and what does not work while making effective changes, in the fight against AIDS.

Furthermore, we must not only educate ourselves and others but also empower and encourage ourselves and other young people towards removing the taboos, marginalization and discrimination that are attached to PLWHA’s, both young and old, so that, we can have a more effective approach towards the prevention of HIV/AIDS.