Young people

UNAIDS Regional Goodwill Ambassador for Latin America and the Caribbean and CNN Anchor Alejandra Oraa visited El Salvador from 9 to 11 August to raise awareness about strengthening HIV prevention efforts for adolescents and young people.

In El Salvador, there is a growing concern about the increase in new HIV infections reported since 2011 among adolescents aged between 15 and 19 years. Young people are not receiving the information they need to protect themselves from HIV: only 36.5% of young people aged 15–24 years know how to prevent HIV transmission.

During her visit, Ms Oraa met with youth leaders in order to analyse gaps in access by adolescents and young people to sexual and reproductive health and HIV-related services and comprehensive sexuality education. Young people stressed the need to urgently accelerate efforts to provide youth with the tools they need to make informed decisions to protect their health, rights and dignity.

Young people also talked about the initiatives in place to contribute to the HIV response from their perspective. For example, to improve access to information and education on HIV and sexual and reproductive health, the National Network of Positive Youth, in coordination with UNAIDS, the United Nations Population Fund and the National Youth Institute, organizes outreach awareness initiatives in public places and schools. Between Friends (Entre Amigos), a community-based organization, uses face-to-face approaches and offers combination prevention options for key populations, including young men who have sex with men and young transgender people.

In El Salvador, Ms Oraa leveraged her social media power to launch a new online survey to assess young people’s knowledge about HIV prevention and transmission. The findings of that United Nations Children’s Fund and UNAIDS joint initiative will be used to inform national public policies and strategies to prevent and reduce new HIV infections among young people. 

Although new HIV infections and AIDS deaths among young people have decreased, in many places knowledge about how to prevent HIV remains worryingly low. Ahead of International Youth Day UNAIDS spoke to four young people about the challenges they face around HIV.

Pavel Gunaev is 16 years old and lives in St. Petersburg, where he is part of the youth-led network of adolescents and young people living with HIV Teenergizer! Pavel said that in his city young people are not aware about HIV.

“AIDS isn't talked about so young people don’t know about the risks or how to protect themselves from HIV,” he said. “As a result, so many uninformed young people are acting and making decisions based on rumors.” Pavel believes that if everyone does more to inform adolescents and young people and dispel the myths around HIV, ending AIDS will be possible.

Chinmay Modi was born with HIV twenty-three years ago. He is a member of the National Coalition of People Living with HIV in India and country focal point for the Youth LEAD Asia Pacific Network.

“The biggest problem is raising awareness and giving young people age-appropriate information,” he said. In his view, parents are not comfortable talking with their children about sex and society shies away from it too. As a result, he explained, young people are engaging in sex and experimenting new things but with little knowledge of the risks involved.

“Condoms need to be promoted and partners should support youth empowerment so that everyone is held accountable,” Chinmay said. He is also frustrated because in India people cannot access stigma-free HIV services at an early age.

In his view, self-stigma is hampering efforts to tackle discrimination, violence and inequalities related to HIV. That’s why, he explained, he wants more people to share their stories and be positive about being positive.

Moises Maciel couldn’t agree more with Chinmay. He is a 20-year-old LGBT and HIV activist. He became a  member of the National Network of Adolescents and Youth Living with HIV/AIDS in Brazil after discovering his positive HIV status two years ago. Since then, he has been on a journey against HIV-related stigma. He has also been motivating his peers to get tested.

“Young people are still at great risk of HIV infection due to a variety of factors such as social marginalization related to gender and racial inequalities,” he said. “In Brazil, young transgender and gay people are particularly targeted,” he explained.

He said that it baffles him to see how stigma and prejudice still dominate despite people living with HIV living healthy lives with the help of antiretroviral therapy. “We should start talking to young people in an open and responsible way about sexuality, sexually transmitted infections, teenage pregnancy and life responsibilities,” Moises said.

Lorraine Anyango, a Boston-based youth health and rights advocate, works to ensure that young people's voices, specifically around HIV, get heard.

“Young people continue to be left out of spaces and discussions on issues that impact their lives,” Lorraine said. “Their autonomy as individual human beings continues to go unacknowledged, leaving them susceptible to the risk of HIV infection.”

In her opinion, young people’s participation in decisions that affect their health can contribute to strengthen national-level accountability, by ensuring that programmes are effectively responding to their needs. Lorraine concluded by saying, “Recognizing youth sexual and reproductive health and rights, and continuing the conversation on HIV will get us closer to ending AIDS by 2030.”

Latin American and Caribbean countries have adopted the Santiago Commitment to Action for the Implementation of the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health. The Santiago Commitment to Action, which was adopted at the Every Woman, Every Child, Every Adolescent meeting held in Santiago de Chile from 2 to 4 July, saw the countries agree to work to end all preventable deaths, including AIDS-related deaths of women, children and adolescents by 2030, and to develop effective initiatives to ensuring their well-being.

The meeting, hosted by the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, saw regional ministers of health and social development and other experts come together. They discussed strategies to reduce inequalities and teenage pregnancy and to promote quality sexual and reproductive health and rights and HIV prevention and care.

The participants recognized that the health of women, children and adolescents is critically important to almost every area of human development and progress, and directly affects the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The participants warned that inequalities affect and worsen overall health in society and represent the greatest threat to regional development.

With the Santiago Commitment to Action, participants agreed to strengthen universal access to health, including HIV-related services, with a human rights and life-cycle approach. They also agreed to develop an integrated programme for women, children and adolescents that guarantees access to HIV services and promotes cooperation and multisectoral actions within and between countries.

The meeting was also an opportunity to formally present the new coordinating mechanism for the Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health in the context of Latin America and the Caribbean, which unites seven organizations under the name Every Woman Every Child Latin America and the Caribbean. This initiative leverages the work done by A Promise Renewed for the Americas, which has transitioned to become the regional interagency coordination mechanism for the Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy.

Young people are critical to achieving the targets of the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS. While young people living with HIV are playing an active role in the AIDS response by providing information, care and peer support, their networks need more support and resources.

To advance efforts to engage young people living with HIV in decision-making on issues that affect their lives, 40 young people from 19 countries representing networks of young people living with HIV met in Cape Town, South Africa, on 19 and 20 June. The Intergenerational Summit for Positive Youth Leadership was held with support from UNAIDS, the Adolescent Treatment Coalition and partners.

The objectives of the meeting included analysing the capacities of networks of young people living with HIV, identifying barriers and opportunities for participation and facilitating a dialogue on how young people living with HIV, and their networks, can be strengthened.

Attending the meeting was Yana Panfilova, a young leader from Teenergizer!, the Ukranian and Eurasian Union of Adolescents and Youth Organizations. She said, “Interruptions and lack of motivation for antiretroviral therapy, discrimination and self-stigma, lack of quality prevention education and barriers to access HIV testing are key challenges faced by adolescents living with HIV in eastern Europe and central Asia.”

Chinmay Modi, a board member representing youth and adolescents in the National Coalition of People Living with HIV in India, said, “Stigma and discrimination remains a key barrier to engaging adolescents and young people living with HIV in the AIDS response.”

While young people are advocating for greater political commitment and action to address the challenges, they are also responding to them through their networks. Moises Maciel, a representative of the National Network of Adolescents and Youth Living with HIV/AIDS in Brazil, said, “The main mission of our social movement is to group, welcome and support adolescents and young people living with HIV. We advocate and take action to strengthen public policies against the stigma and impact of HIV.”

Carlo Andre Oliveras, Coordinator of the Adolescent HIV Treatment Coalition, said, “We see that the majority of work is done by adolescents and young people on a volunteer basis without any financial support and mentorship. This meeting is a start to assess where we are in our movement. Today, the world is facing many challenges; we should not lose sight of the opportunity to make things better.”

“My take-away message from this meeting is that every network can improve their work if we have a more horizontal coordination, if we share our accomplishments and failures, our success and difficulties. I am leaving this meeting feeling empowered, and as soon as I am back in Brazil I’ll use this power to change things for real,” said Mr Maciel. 

Young people living with HIV have, with support from UNAIDS and youth leaders, begun an innovative and unprecedented partnership to strengthen South–South collaboration between networks of young people living with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean and in Africa.

Young people living with HIV in both regions have for a long time organized in national and regional networks to advocate for increased access to HIV services. Now, through a new joint initiative called the 10 Questions Project, they will assess the organizational, advocacy and outreach capacities of networks of young people living with HIV globally, using social media tools, online surveys and in-depth interviews.

Through the initiative, lessons will be learned from each region’s ongoing efforts and from how young people living with HIV in each region participate in the AIDS response. The 10 Questions Project will outline and commit to common advocacy strategies and identify solutions to the challenges faced by young people living with HIV. The assessment will aim to better inform partners and key stakeholders, including donors, on investment choices for strengthening networks and organizations of young people living with HIV.

This joint effort between regions aligns with #uproot, a recently launched youth-led political agenda to end AIDS by 2030, which highlights the need to innovate and reinvigorate partnerships within the youth movement working on HIV, including between youth networks from countries in the global South.

UNAIDS is working to ensure that the world keeps its commitment made in the United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS that 90% of young people have the skills, knowledge and capacity to protect themselves from HIV and have access to sexual and reproductive health services by 2020.