More from Vienna

Hiya again, it's Eliis catching up on the Pre-Conference. Each day has been pretty full on with information and sessions, starting every morning with an overview of what to expect.

Our first day seemed to go on for ages, but following this each day got easier and became routine. I tried to attend the most relevant sessions for me and for the projects I’m involved in. I only wish I could have made all of them, but there were too many sessions, so I had to make a choice! Here are a few I found were particularly inspiring or just enjoyable;

• HIV and AIDS: Perfectly In Between, presented by Advocates for Youth and Youth Coalition.
• Condoms Beyond Prevention: Creating Demand and Increase Use, presented by The Condom Project.
  
• Evaluation and Improvement on HIV and AIDS Peer Education Projects, presented by SexpressionUK and IFMSA
• Stimulating Conversation for Change Among LGBTQ, presented by Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network and Advocates for Youth.
• Liquid Love and HIV/AIDS, Media and Communications Sub-Committee
• I Love Being A Girl, presented by IPPF
• Share, Inspire, Create: A model for youth leadership, presented by Let’s Stop Aids.
  

Vienna is just beautiful and has many old style features. I’ve had very few chances to really explore the city, but my adventures to restaurants have been wonderful. Every building opens up with a surprise out the back, most commonly magnificent gardens.

At the moment it’s just Carly and I preparing information and notes for the main conference. We can’t wait to get involved, things can only get better.

Blog to you all soon, remember “Now Make It Happen”

News from Vienna

Hi Guys,
The Youth Pre-Conference has been incredible! Over 200 people from 95 countries, the energy and enthusiasm has been relentless, as is the heat! It has been a great opportunity to network with so many passionate and motivated young people, with fresh ideas and initiatives.
So, what is the Vienna Youth Force? VYF aims to build youth leadership for a sustainable response to HIV and AIDS. The Pre-Conference provided a global platform for international, regional and local youth organisations concerned with promoting sexual reproduction and health rights and HIV and AIDS. These groups prepared activities and advocacy campaigns for us (the youth participants) to attend with the ultimate goal of empowering us to advocate for the Millennium Development Goals and Universal Access to HIV medicines.
Each day has been jam packed with 5 sessions running at any one time – this proved difficult when you’re as indecisive as me! I tried to focus on sessions covering the following:

• Sexuality Education for HIV Prevention

• Models for Youth Leadership

• Understanding the Advocacy process

• Peer Education Programmes

Needless to say my brain capacity has been tested! Eliis will talk you through a couple of the sessions she attended here.
We’ve also been interviewing numerous people on their experience of sex education in their country and access to youth friendly and appropriate services to gain a global vision of the current issues and find out more about what young people think and consider important.
The Pre-Conference ended on a high at our closing ceremony Dance the Ribbon. Listening to Michel Sidibe (Executive Director of UNAIDS) speak here was definitely a high point, supporting the youth movement and believing in our capacity to advocate for change. The event ended with an appropriate chant of our slogan “Now Make It Happen”.
Now for the XVIII International AIDS Conference, time to release the activist in me!
Now, Make It Happen.
Will write again soon

AIDS 2010

Hi all, my name is Carly (the one on the right) and I’m a student Nurse from University of Manchester! I arrived in Vienna last night with Eliis, another young person selected for this opportunity, to attend the XVIII International AIDS conference.

I found out about this opportunity through the Student Stop AIDS Society and was lucky enough to be selected by UNICEF UK and Restless Development to attend the Youth pre-conference, the AIDS 2010 conference and a three-day advocacy training organised by Restless Development.

Inspired by a year volunteering in an East African orphanage, I applied wanting to do more to empower young people to campaign for universal access to sufficient education, treatment and care.

I believe advocacy is fundamental for change and I’m passionate about peer educating. Attending the AIDS conference in Vienna will provide knowledge, resources and networking opportunity for us to bring back to the UK to facilitate raising awareness.

This year is 10 years since world leaders made eight promises to create a fairer world. These promises, called the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs as you will probably see them called in the papers, range from eradicating poverty and hunger to halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation. One the MDGs, number 6, focuses specifically on HIV and AIDS, so I hope to find out more about the progress achieved so far at the conference.

Whilst at the conference Eliis and I will try to keep you updated of our time in Vienna, so keep an eye on this blog!



Hello, I’m Eliis (the one on the left) and I work in a sexual health clinic in Newham (East London) as a peer educator, and with the Terence Higgins Trust.

I’ve done a lot of youth work in the past and taken part in many projects on young people’s sexual health awareness and discrimination. I personally feel very close to any project to do with these issues and feel very privileged to be attending the AIDS 2010 conference in Vienna!

I’ve also been involved in World AIDS Day events in Newham and working on anti-homophobia campaigns has taken me around Europe.