[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
AFRO-NETS> Ambassadors of Positive Living Youth Programme
Ambassadors of Positive Living Youth Programme
----------------------------------------------
Source: [email protected]
Commonwealth Youth Programme Africa Centre - Ambassadors of Positive
Living Workshop
COMMUNIQUE:
VISION
We, the young men and women from 12 Commonwealth African Countries liv-
ing with HIV/AIDS hereby declare our commitment to combating the virus.
It is our vision that all young men and women living with the virus
will continue to live positive and productive lives in their communi-
ties and families and that the walls of exclusion in resource provi-
sion, including health care services and employment will be eliminated
to create an acceptable environment for young people living with
HIV/AIDS.
MISSION
We commit ourselves to undertake massive national campaigns for the
empowerment of all young women and men living with HIV/AIDS and those
at risk to live positively and facilitate behavioural change among all
young men and women in our countries with the objective of drastically
reducing the rates of HIV infection among young women and men by the
turn of the century.
RECOMMENDED STRATEGIES
Having deliberated on Networking and Integration of young positive liv-
ing people into HIV/AIDS National Programmes at a five-day workshop
held in Lusaka, Zambia from 29th September to 3rd October 1997, we
identified the need for all concerned parties, national and interna-
tional - to utilise young men and women who are the most vulnerable
group and have been hardest hit by the pandemic to be centrally in-
volved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. More specifically, we recommend
the strategies listed below.
To Governments and NGOs:
1. We, the young men and women who are witnessing the persistent de-
struction of human life - in particular, the diminishing number of
friends in our communities - would like to see young men and women
living with HIV/AIDS be part of the informed resources which should
be drawn together to compliment the process networking, integration,
co-ordination, implementation and evaluation of HIV/AIDS research,
prevention, care and mitigation programmes.
2. We, the young women and men appeal to member governments and NGOs to
ensure that they have an AIDS desk in all Ministries and all
organisations representing the civil society. We would like to ap-
peal to Ministries responsible for Youth Affairs to take a lead in
this area. Our recommendation is that the identified person for the
desk should be a young man or woman who has experienced the traumas
associated with living with HIV/AIDS, and someone with in-built
strength and will-power to live positively and devoted to fight
against HIV/AIDS as an Ambassador of Positive Living.
3. We appeal to member countries to ensure that the following recommen-
dations are considered earnestly and urgently for implementation.
We urge our governments and NGOs to:
- Facilitate employment and make a provision for the remuneration of
Ambassadors of Positive Living who are engaged in outreach work.
- Promote the training of potential young positive Ambassadors in
advocacy, communicative skills and other relevant life skills.
- Endorse and ensure the integration of young Positive Living
Ambassadors in National HIV/AIDS programmes at all levels.
- Facilitate and ensure that youth friendly information is disseminated
via print and electronic media.
- Facilitate the establishment of National HIV/AIDS Networks for youth
including the Ambassadors of Positive Living Programme.
- Establish a co-ordinating body for all youth focused HIV/AIDS
programmes at the national level.
- Ensure fair representation of Ambassadors of Positive Living on Na-
tional Ethical Research Committees in order to prevent debasing, de-
grading and dehumanising research on young people living with
HIV/AIDS.
- Establish a gender and age-group segregated data base on HIV/AIDS
related research findings.
- Ensure accessibility of drugs for young people living with HIV/AIDS.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We, the participants to the workshop would like to acknowledge the com-
mendable efforts made by the Commonwealth Youth Programme Africa Centre
in collaboration with UNFPA for bringing together Ambassadors of Posi-
tive Living from 12 countries in the Commonwealth Africa Region namely:
Botswana, Cameroon, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, and the host country - Zambia.
We are also grateful to other collaborating organisations that contrib-
uted towards the success of the workshop.
4. We, the young people also appeal to the Commonwealth Youth Programme
Africa Centre and UNFPA to implement the following recommendations:
- Document and promote models of good practice for positive living
and networking in support of young people living with HIV/AIDS
and those at risk.
- Document personal experiences of Ambassadors at the national and
regional levels.
- Disseminate the documented information for easy access to all the
young people living with HIV/AIDS and those at risk.
- Organise annual workshops for the Ambassadors of Positive Living to
rejuvenate, share experiences, review and evaluate our contributions
and activities.
- Create a system which allows for the rotation of the workshop hosting
country.
We, the young people who, but for our HIV/AIDS sero-positive status
could have been certain of becoming the leaders of tomorrow, appeal to
the International Community to listen to our voice which may be faint
but could assist in saving thousands of human lives.
5. We urge the Donor Agencies and the International Community to:
- invest in HIV/AIDS research in an effort to discover a vaccine or
a cure which will be effective and accessible even to young people
in poverty-stricken nations.
- endorse and promote the noble cause of models of good practice
and the Ambassadors of Positive Living Programme by providing
logistical, technical, financial, moral and material support.
We, the young men and women who participated in this workshop and are
living positively with the virus, hereby conclude by pledging to con-
tinuously affirm ourselves in addressing this unfolding tragedy which
has claimed thousands of our peers in our countries.
--
Dr Richard M Mkandawire
Regional Director
Commonwealth Youth Programme Africa Centre - Lusaka
P.O. Box 30190, Lusaka
Zambia
Tel: +260-1-252-733/252-153
Fax: +260-1-253-698
mailto:[email protected]
--
Send mail for the `AFRO-NETS' conference to `[email protected]'.
Mail administrative requests to `[email protected]'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `[email protected]'.