Young Voices in the Fight Against AIDS

Young Voices in the Fight Against AIDS
This month's international conference in Mexico City brought a large delegation of young people. Transcript of radio broadcast:
13 August 2008

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

One thousand young people from around the world attended the International AIDS Conference last week in Mexico City. They were there to represent the five million young people living with H.I.V. and the more than fifteen million who have lost parents to AIDS.

Twenty-one-year-old Andrew Francis from Jamaica says young people must be active at every level of AIDS policy-making. If not, he says, there will continue to be programs and policies that do not connect with the realities of young people.

Twenty-three-old Mary Awour Odhiambo of Kenya became infected four years ago after having unprotected sex. She says the drugs that she and others take to control H.I.V. give them the appearance of being healthy. But people on antiretroviral therapy can still pass the virus to others. So her advice to young people?

MARY AWOUR ODHIAMBO: "Never trust anybody, not even themselves. Even if you have to go like for sex, at least they should use a condom, because in this world you can't tell who has the virus now."

Other young delegates talked about difficulties facing AIDS education and prevention efforts. Twenty-year-old Himakstu Piplani is from India.

HIMAKSTU PIPLANI: "Things back home are not very good. First and foremost the sex education program has been banned by twelve Indian states. So that's not a good thing because we are not getting adequate knowledge and information anymore. Secondly, the legal framework in India is not very good when it comes to AIDS and young people. We have laws that criminalize homosexuality. We have laws that criminalize drug use."

The young people at the AIDS conference included teenage peer educators. Conference organizers invited seventeen-year-old Vanessa John Mlawi to speak about her work in Tanzania.

VANESSA JOHN MLAWI: "I am a peer educator in school and my role as a peer educator is I provide accurate information to my other students. And it is accepted and I think that by going on and doing this will make a really big change."

Another delegate, Alischa Ross of Australia, lost her mother and stepfather to AIDS when she was a teenager. She later started a nonprofit group called YEAH, Youth Empowering Against AIDS.

ALISCHA ROSS: "When you think of the fact that the majority of people in the world affected by H.I.V. are young means the majority of people with the experience are young. So that makes perfect sense that we are at the center of responding to this pandemic."

Alischa Ross saw hope in the large presence of young people at the latest International AIDS conference. At the first one she attended eight years ago in South Africa, she says, there were just thirty delegates under the age of thirty.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report by Nancy Steinbach, with reporting from Mexico by VOA's Rosanne Skirble. For more on the conference, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

----------------------------Google Translate

年轻的声音，在防治艾滋病的斗争
这一个月的国际会议在墨西哥城市带来了庞大的代表团的年轻人。全文电台广播：
2008年8月13日

这是美国之音特别英语教育的报告。

1000年轻的人来自世界各地出席国际艾滋病会议上周在墨西哥城的。他们有代表5000000的年轻人感染艾滋病毒及以上15000000谁失去父母的艾滋病。

21岁高龄的郑家富弗朗西斯说，来自牙买加的年轻人必须积极的每一个层次上艾滋病政策的决策。如果没有，他说，有将继续以程序和政策，不连接与现实的年轻人。

23岁的玛丽awour odhiambo肯尼亚的感染，四年前后，不安全的性行为。她说，毒品，她和其他人采取的控制艾滋病毒给他们的出现，正在健康。但是，人们就抗逆转录病毒疗法仍可以通过将病毒传染给他人。因此，她的意见，以年轻的人呢？

玛丽awour odhiambo ： “从来没有信任，任何人，甚至没有自己，即使你有去一样，为性，至少他们应该使用安全套，因为在这个世界上你不能说谁拥有病毒现在” 。

其他年轻的代表们谈到面临的困难艾滋病教育和预防方面的努力。 20岁高龄的himakstu piplani是来自印度。

himakstu piplani ： “回家乡的东西，不是非常好。首要的性教育计划已明令禁止的12国，印度，所以这不是一件好事，因为我们没有得到足够的知识和信息了。其次，在法律框架印度是不太好，当谈到艾滋病与年轻人，我们有法律，刑事罪论处同性恋，我们有法律，刑事罪论处使用药物“ 。

年轻的人民在艾滋病的会议，包括十几岁的同侪教育工作者。会议的组织者邀请了17岁高龄的凡妮莎约翰mlawi谈论她的工作在坦桑尼亚。

凡妮莎约翰mlawi ： “我是同侪教育工作者在学校和我的角色，作为一个同侪教育工作者是我提供准确的资料到我的其他学生。这是接受，我认为去对做这会令一个真正的大的变化。 “

另一位代表， alischa罗斯，澳大利亚，失去了她的母亲和继父对艾滋病时，她被一名少年。后来她开始了所谓的非营利性组织是啊，青年增强对爱滋病的认识。

alischa罗斯说： “当你认为的事实，即最广大人民的，在世界上受艾滋病毒是年轻人的手段，大多数人与经验的青年，从而使完美的意义上，我们是在该中心的回应这一流行病“ 。

alischa罗斯看到了希望，在大在场的年轻人们在最新的国际艾滋病会议。在第一次她参加了8年前在南非，她说，有30只是代表根据年龄30 。

这是该美国之音特别英语教育的报告南希斯坦巴克，报告从墨西哥由美国之音的rosanne skirble 。如需了解更多关于这次会议，到voaspecialenglish.com 。我史蒂夫ember 。