YOUTH MOBILISATION AGAINST THE SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS

Issued by: GCIS

18 February 2000

The spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, especially among youth, is a matter which needs urgent and a multi-faceted approach by all those who are involved in youth development. It is against this background that the National Youth Commission (NYC), International Aids Conference and the South African Youth Council have invited youth organizations to a workshop which will be held in Bloemfontein, Free State Province from Sunday 20 to Friday 25 of February, 2000.

The objective of the workshop is to build capacity in the youth sector which will enable youth formations to integrate HIV/AIDS work into their organisational objectives. This initiative aims at building ongoing interaction on the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS as these delegates will share their skills on how best they can train other community HIV/AIDS youth workers on HIV/AIDS awareness. Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms will be put in place so as to ensure that this does not become another "talk-shop" on HIV/AIDS.

The content of the workshop will focus on the following:

• HIV/AIDS and Human Rights
  
• HIV/AIDS and Gender Issues HIV/AIDS and Family Planning
  
• Positive development and Advocacy

All these efforts are aimed at realising the objectives of the national campaign, the Partnership Against AIDS, to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa and the region.

Meanwhile, the success of the National Youth Commission pilot project, the Young Positive Living Ambassadors (YPLA), which was launched in KwaZulu on December 01, 1998 and a promising kick-start in the Free State on December 01, 1999 have necessitated greater co-ordination in the implementation of the project in the run up to launches of similar projects in the remaining seven provinces. It is on the basis of the above that the NYC will hold a three day HIV/AIDS Strategic Planning workshop in the Free State starting from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 of February, 2000. Participating in this workshop will be Ambassadors from the two provinces where the project has been launched and delegates form other provinces.

The following are the objectives of the workshop:

• To set up an internal Aids Committee which will co-ordinate implementation on the National Youth HIV/AIDS Programme
  
• To develop a year implementation plan for the National Youth HIV/AIDS Strategy, YPLA in particular
  
• To ensure greater co-ordination with provinces

For comments, please contact NYC's Monde Mkalipi on 012-325 3702 or 082 575 3975 or Palesa Molebatsi on 051-403 3531.