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A Voice For the Voiceless

The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change. We recruit graduate students to volunteer as Peace Fellows with partners.

The Impact of Service "I look at myself as having the potential to be as strong and caring as the amazing women I met in Kenya." Kate Cummings (Tufts University) volunteered in 2009 as a Peace Fellow for Vital Voices in Africa. For more 2009 feedback click here.

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Partners > Africa > Youth Against AIDS

Youth Against AIDS

• Mission
• Advocacy
• Dissemination
  • AdvocacyNet
  • In the Media Highlights
• Networking
• ICT
• Institution Building

Mission

During 2001 and 2002, AP made it possible for a group of college students to develop a network of young AIDS activists in Africa, named Youth Against AIDS (YAA). Their goal is to lobby for more involvement by young people in the development of AIDS policy.

Advocacy Featured on the left is co-founder of YAA, Lydiah Bosire, and on the right is YAA Representative of South Africa, Charlotte Mjele.

• YAA asked its 18 African representatives to organize a letter-writing campaign to lobby the British government to commit more funding to AIDS. Four countries raised over 100 letters within a week.

• In an imaginative example of north-south youth cooperation, YAA has also turned its network to fundraising. Under a program known as “Adopt a Project,” YAA’s African members were asked to identify small, community-based projects. YAA then sought out northern partners (mainly universities) to sponsor a project and raise funds. No fewer than five universities or groups in Canada, the United States and Britain have raised funds for seven African projects.

• YAA was also an active participant in a coalition of youth organizations (Youth Force) that lobbied at the International AIDS conference in Barcelona.

• Youth Against AIDS has expressed concern that the new Global AIDS Fund will not target vulnerable groups like young people, and that it may give out grants that are too large to be useful to community based campaigns.

Dissemination

• AdvocacyNet

AP has published a series of newsletters about YAA with reports directly from Africa.

February 2003
Youth Against AIDS Raises $4,730 For African Projects

April 2002
British Students Raise Funds for Nigerian Youth AIDS Project

February 2002
Youth Network Urges New Global AIDS Fund to Target Youth

December 2001
Letters: Youth Against AIDS in Africa

December 2001
AP Helps to Launch a New African Network of Young AIDS Activists

• In the Media Highlights

Youth Against AIDS was selected as the first featured partner on a new One World AIDS web portal. The channel was launched on International AIDS Day (December 1).

Networking

• In preparing material for the site, AP enlisted the support of two African journalist organisations, Journalists Against AIDS (Nigeria) and Rights Features (Kenya). John Kamau, the Managing Editor of Rights Features, contributed several profiles to the YAA site and wrote to AP: “Thanks for giving us this challenging task of writing these profiles. It has been a learning experience, emotional, and reveals the details we all ignore. It is our hope that this will open door to more collaboration.” Rights Features has now asked AP to work with them on a website.

• With the YAA network firmly in place and clearly self-sufficient, AP has withdrawn from direct involvement although we do remain available to provide advice on the site.

ICT

Website

• The site made it possible for YAA to profile YAA’s 18 African members and post richly-illustrated reports on six African countries that are on the front line of the fight against AIDS. This material was collected by three members of YAA, who visited South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Uganda, Senegal and Nigeria in the summer of 2001. The website went public on December 1, 2001 – International AIDS Day – and it has attracted considerable attention and interest. AP has received well over 70 messages of support and interest. Most have come from Africa, which underlines the reach of AP’s products and also shows the potential for Internet-based networking in that continent. YAA’s friends then helped to translate all of the material on their new site into French, on their own free time. This showed their dedication to the project. It also shows how a website can help to empower and energize a new network.

• The website (and series) have also been read widely outside Africa. David Alexander wrote to AP from Taiwan with the news that the first issue of the newsletter had appeared in the Taiwan Church News – in Chinese. “It goes on to talk about the formation of YAA and directs people to your website. So, You're not only in English and French, but now also in Chinese, at least here in Taiwan. Congratulations and keep up the good work.”

• Lydiah Bosire, one of the co-founders of YAA described the impact of AP’s support on the YAA network: “The contribution of Advocacy Project was invaluable in solidifying the networking efforts of our organization. Our website, which you were instrumental in creating, has received incredible reviews. Not only do we have many hits, but many people have come to know about us because of our online presence. In fact, many organizations have invited the youth featured on our websites to their events! For instance, Inviolata Mmbwavi, one of the girls we profiled from our visit to Kenya, was invited to speak at an HIV/AIDS panel the UNGASS on Children. The UNICEF office in Nairobi knew about Inviolata because of our profile. There are many other accomplishments that YAA has met because of your support, and I hope we can find other ways to work together in the future.”

Institution Building

• Emboldened by the exposure they received through the website, YAA has developed several new partnerships with other young AIDS campaigners.

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