African Medical and Research Foundation (Nairobi)
Maende Makokha
16 August 2006
opinion
"There has been a lot of discussion at this conference about microbicides and development of other preventive technologies. It is important that tools like these that will empower women and enable them to make decisions about safer sex are developed. My concern is that education seems to be dropping off the agenda.
Prevention education is still important and particularly for young people who are not infected. But there has been very little focus on this group within the discussions at the conference. I think we need to step back and reconsider the 'window of hope' generation – young people who are currently not infected and who will be the determinants of the future of the epidemic.
The 'Global Village', which houses exhibition stalls for different groups at the conference, is an exciting place – providing opportunity for very diverse and interesting groups to interact. It is the most vibrant forum for discussion in the conference; most plenary presentations have too little time for Q&A sessions, so there is limited discussion. The Global Village is filling this void very well. Young people calling themselves the Toronto Youth Force have organised themselves very well, and are taking part in a lot of the discussions and activities. They have kitted themselves in yellow t-shirts for ready identification and are making a wonderful statement about the importance of self-mobilisation.
It is critical that the youth be involved in discussions on the epidemic. Stephen Lewis, the UN secretary-general's special envoy for AIDS in Africa, admitted that young people were marginalised during the first couple of decades of the epidemic, and this is an issue that adults had not really come to terms with. He outlined the need to embrace a youth culture in HIV interventions. I agree. It is not enough for adults to talk to young people; they need to transform the way that they work with them, to begin seeing things from their perspective, and to put them at the centre of interventions."
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