Y-Peer Bulgaria
June 2007 Winners
by Editor
Thanks to the groundbreaking Spray to Change Attitudes campaign run by MTV and The Body Shop, we added 15 new Staying Alive Award winners. The winners span 11 countries and used their new funding to turn ideas into realities to help change communities and literally save lives. They are an incredible group of young people who are filling gaps and breaking taboos to keep their friends, families and communities safe from the devastation caused by HIV/AIDS.
YEAH (Youth Empowerment Against HIV/AIDS)
Location: Carlton, Australia
YEAH were nominated by Eloise Bishop from The Body Shop in Mulgrave, Australia. They are organizing a student-led campaign (‘Shades for AIDS’) to raise AIDS awareness and promote HIV prevention education in Australian schools. Students throughout Australia wear sunglasses and provide peer education on HIV and AIDS, aiming to reduce rising HIV infection rates among youth.
YPEER (Youth Peer) Bulgaria
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
Y-Peer networks in several countries around the world are valuable opportunities for young people to share resources, strategies, and skills in their common fight against AIDS. Milena is Bulgaria’s Y-Peer focal point and her team is hosting a National Youth Festival on safe behavior and HIV prevention, and conducting a short film contest on safe sex.
Mela Leteweld Youth Association
Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Habtamu and the team at Mela Leteweld conduct peer education to de-stigmatize condom use in six schools around Addis Ababa. They use ‘The Condom Project’, a global initiative which involves turning condoms into wearable art and making short videos depicting how condoms are viewed by them and their peers.
Kisumu Disabled Self Help Group
Location: Kisumu, Kenya
Focusing on the underserved and marginalized disabled population of Kisumu, Joseph Omondi and his network of young people train peer educators, promote voluntary counseling and testing for HIV, and sensitize their community to the particular HIV vulnerabilities that disabled youth experience.
Nyabala Community Farming Project
Location: Onditi, Kenya
In a remote section of southwestern Kenya, a few young people have come together to help the increasing number of young women widowed by AIDS and their children to survive in a traditional patriarchal community without the protection of their husbands. They learn how to generate their own incomes to avoid relying on sexual predators for basic health, nutrition and sanitation needs.
REPACTED (Rapid Effective Participatory Action in Community Theatre Education and Development)
Location: Nakuru, Kenya
By involving audiences in their productions, this traveling theater troupe in Nakuru, Kenya, led by Collins and Dennis, educate their peers on HIV prevention, de-stigmatize AIDS and promote voluntary counseling and testing in 9 community centers, schools and prisons.
Talking Horn Theatre Group
Location: Kakamega, Kenya
A 2005 Staying Alive Award winner, Makandi Murasi and his group use street theater and sports tournaments to provide HIV prevention education to present honest, accurate pictures of living with AIDS. They focus on combating harmful traditional cultural practices that are enabling HIV to spread throughout their community.
CEPARAM (Centre for Education, Promotion, Advancement for the Rights of Adolescent Mothers)
Location: Zomba, Malawi
Betty and her team of young women are using their Staying Alive Award to support 500 teen mothers and 300 girls. They counsel them in HIV prevention, help them learn new skills so that they can generate income independent of men, and provide life-sustaining food and subsistence.
THINK Mental Fashion
Location: Tromso, Norway
Noma is a young Zambian woman living in Norway creating an information bridge between Norwegian medical students and the Murmansk school system across the border in Russia where HIV infection rates are soaring. They use peer education to discuss harm reduction and other life saving HIV prevention skills.
Snapshot Community Cinema
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Bulelani is a young aspiring film-maker. He is leading a team using film to document, educate, entertain and stimulate discussion among youth on some of the taboo issues plaguing the township where they live. They are determined to expose sexual abuses, gangster violence, and gender disparities, as well as provide life-saving information on HIV prevention and living with AIDS positively and optimistically.
CDIT (Community Development Initiative Tanzania)
Location: Karagwe, Tanzania
Deus and his young team are tackling the entrenched harmful traditional practices that create unnecessary vulnerability to HIV infection. Domestic violence, ignorance of AIDS, and the lack of rights women suffer in their community will be challenged through peer education and community workshops.
KYHASP (KAMOD HIV/AIDS Support Programme)
Location: Kampala, Uganda
Kamod is a village in eastern Uganda where HIV and AIDS is rampant. Felix Esalu is a young man who recognizes that his community is suffering and has organized his peers to teach HIV prevention through theater, film, and community workshops. They distribute condoms, provide referrals to voluntary counseling and testing centers, and provide food and nutrition for people living with HIV who have been shunned by their families.
YEI (Youth Empowering Initiative)
Location: Bwera Kasese, Uganda
Western Uganda has been devastated by civil war and terrorism. As a result, youth have been disproportionately affected by trauma, unwanted pregnancies, and forced sex often resulting in HIV infection. YEI, under the direction of dynamic and determined Kambasu Obed, provides VCT referrals, post-HIV test clubs, treatment education, prevention and anti-stigma advocacy in schools and on radio, and jobs skills for 4 youth groups in the region.
Resource room at Body and Soul
Location: London, UK
This London based service organization was nominated by The Body Shop for their work to support over 400 young African immigrants and asylum seekers, 30% of whom are people living with AIDS. They are conducting four "Staying Alive Workshops" on life-skills, HIV prevention, sexual health, and leadership. Health and nutrition services are also provided.
Nashville Cares
Location: Nashville, TN, USA
The First Person/Survivor Club is a prevention education program for inner-city high school youth conducted by HIV positive youth. They provide peer education training, risk reduction strategies, and educate parents on the sexual risks their children face every day.
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by Ejakait Michael on Mar 26 2010, 11:24 GMT
Thanks Staying Alive Foundation for the initiative for joining the fight against HIV/AIDS by funding youth projects Big Up