GYCA contributes to visibility materials for the Mexico YouthForce campaign at IAC 2008 in Mexico City.

Below are brief descriptions of the current projects undertaken by GYCA North and South Secretariat staff, in collaboration with our members and outside partners. For in-depth information on activities in your region, please visit our regional pages.


1) ICASA 2008
2) WORLD AIDS DAY 2008
3) SMALL GRANTS
4) MEXICO CITY YOUTHFORCE
5) GLOBAL MAPPING
6) IATT
7) YOUTH SHADOW REPORTS

ICASA 2008

This year marks the 15^th anniversary of the annual International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STI) in Africa. The conference will be held from the 3^rd to the 7^th of December in Dakar, Senegal. Key activists involved in the struggle to stop HIV and AIDS in Africa and elsewhere will gather together to discuss this year’s main theme, “Africa’s response: facing the facts,” and review the outcomes and ups and downs of various reactions to the pandemic across the continent. For more information, visit the main ICASA website at www.icasa2008.org, as well as the ICASA website geared toward young activists at www.youthicasa2008.org.

WORLD AIDS DAY 2008

On December 1^st of this year, GYCA members from all over the world will be participating in local gatherings to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of World AIDS Day. To help get out the word about the many local gatherings taking place, GYCA has created a webpage for your own reference of all registered events, as well as a toolkit that is available in English, Portuguese, and Spanish to help you get started on organizing your own event. Check out our World AIDS Day webpage for a list of all events, access to the toolkit, and to find out how you can register your own event with us.

SMALL GRANTS

GYCA awarded its first round of five small grants to outstanding young leaders working on HIV/AIDS projects in their communities in March, 2008.

First round winners include:

• Faith Phiri – Malawi
• Project: Building the Capacity of Girls to Reduce Their Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS
• Amare Abebaw – Ethiopia
• Project: Enabling AIDS orphan children to live a continuous decent life in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
• Christabell Opudo – Kenya
• Project: Young People Living with HIV/AIDS in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS Stigma
• Gulalai Ismail – Pakistan
• Project: Awareness Raising about HIV/AIDS Among Young Women
• Jean Luc Ugirashebuja – Rwanda
• Project: Voluntary Counseling and Testing Campaign Project

Since receiving funding, the grant winners have been blogging regularly about their projects. Read all about them here!

GYCA also recently awarded its second round of small grants to five new, young leaders from around the world!

Congratulations:

• Ahmed Tamman – Egypt
• Sujan Jirel – Nepal
• Mawethu Zita – South Africa
• Lamin Bojang – The Gambia
• Oghenefego Isikwenu – Nigeria

Check back with us in mid-November to read their first blog entries about their projects!

MEXICO CITY YOUTHFORCE

Since the 2002 International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, the YouthForce – a coalition of organizations from around the world dedicated to promoting awareness about the effects of HIV and AIDS issues on young people – has been hard at work making sure that young people have significant representation at the International AIDS Conferences held every two years. This past August, the 2008 International AIDS Conference was held in Mexico City. The Mexico YouthForce coordinated various events for young conference delegates before and during the conference, and has since reconvened to assess the success of those events and youth participation during the general conference.

To learn more about the work of the Mexico YouthForce, check out their website , or take a look at the Youth Rapporteur Report about the conference.

Also, check out the Mexico YouthForce Youtube channel , where you view can lots of videos from IAC 2008, including several with GYCA members: Ricardo Baruch, Christabell Opudo, Reshma Pattni, Naomi Sorkin, and Joya Banerjee.

GLOBAL MAPPING

As a result of our on-line Organizations Directory, GYCA members have connected with hundreds of local youth organizations worldwide addressing HIV and AIDS issues, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and poverty at the community level.

Be sure to check out the directory to see what organizations there are and what events are taking place in your community!

IATT

As part of GYCA’s ongoing work with the UN Interagency Task Team (IATT) on HIV and Young People, GYCA staff members will participate in the IATT meeting in January 2009 in New York City. GYCA staff are working closely with other IATT members on a series of Global Guidance Briefs, which will be released in December.

YOUTH SHADOW REPORTS

At UNGASS Review Meetings, member states of the UN submit special country progress reports on Universal Access to prevention, care, and treatment for HIV and AIDS. This year, as a parallel project, GYCA released Youth Shadow Reports – evaluations of government commitments to young people affected by HIV and AIDS issues.

GYCA members produced 11 reports, as well as 7 simplified “community-level” versions of the reports in various parts of the world.

Click here to view the reports!