Stop AIDS: Keep the promise

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1 Diciembre 2006

The theme for World AIDS Day on 1 December 2006 is ‘accountability’. Governments around the world declared they would fight the AIDS pandemic. Now is the time to remind them of their promises.
 
The World Association calls every Girl Guide and Girl Scout around the world to fight HIV/AIDS
 
To fight HIV/AIDS, tell 10 girls 10 facts about AIDS, wear red on World AIDS Day on December 1 or write to your government to make sure they keep the promise. Find out more about WAGGGS’  call to action.
 
WAGGGS’ global Adolescent Health Survey proves that HIV/AIDS is an important topic for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts around the world. Nearly a quarter of 6,000 girls surveyed know somebody living with AIDS and 40 per cent think it is the most important issue for WAGGGS. Therefore girls worldwide say “fight AIDS” is one of the seven key advocacy messages on Adolescent Health. 
For many years WAGGGS has focused on four key areas:
  • Tackling the root causes of HIV/AIDS by running education and awareness projects to help women and girls take control of their sexual health
  • Forming international cooperation strategies with organization such as UNAIDS and the Alliance of Youth CEOs
  • Empowering girls and young women by providing them with leadership and decision-making skills
  • Advocating for change on a local, national and global level
Have a look at WAGGGS’ resources like the WAGGGS AIDS badge curriculum and WAGGGS’ Adolescent Health survey and read more about WAGGGS’ HIV and AIDS projects around the world. 

World AIDS campaign





The World AIDS campaign promotes the theme ‘accountability’ and the slogan ‘Stop AIDS: Keep the promise’ for World AIDS Day 2007. The campaign was founded by UNAIDS together with many international and national organizations responding to HIV/AIDS.

 
World AIDS day was first launched by the World Health Organisation and the UN General Assembly in 1988. Since then it has been increasingly successful in raising awareness for a global issue. Today it is one of the most successful international days. 

 Tell 10 girls 10 facts about AIDS

Join in, it’s easy! Simply download the fact card, print out 10 sheets, assemble 10 fact cards and use them to inform 10 girls about HIV/AIDS. Imagine 10 million Girl Guides and Girl Scouts around the world each tell 10 girls 10 facts about HIV/AIDS. That would be the gigantic impact on 100 million girls!

Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world. It is also a weapon that the world cannot do without in the fight against AIDS.
Nelson Mandela

Make sure they keep the promise

In 2001 governments met at the UN General Assembly and declared to reverse the spread of AIDS. Five years later, in June 2006, the declaration was reviewed by the General Assembly. 

Virtually, every country on earth is represented in the General Assembly and therefore supports that promise. Furthermore, last year, the Group of Eight (G8) leaders made commitments to ensure universal access to treatment by 2010. The G8 consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Find out what your government is doing to research a cure, prevent the spread of the disease and support people living with HIV/AIDS. You can write to your local MP or the Ministry of Health to remind them of what they promised.   The goal of this year’s World AIDS day is to:
  • call on all governmental leaders to be accountable for the promises they made
  • set the targets necessary to reach universal access to care, treatment and support
  • make all the necessary resources available in order to overcome the AIDS pandemic

Show your colour

  Red is the colour connected with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Raise awareness for the issue by wearing red on World AIDS Day on 1 December. Ask your friends, colleagues, sisters in Guiding, family and everybody else to join in and make a visible statement to support the World AIDS campaign. You can use the colour red also in promotional objects, e.g. red ribbons, t-shirts, banners, etc.

Become an advocate

  girls worldwide say “fight AIDS” is one of WAGGGS’ seven key advocacy messages on Adolescent Health. You can become part of WAGGGS’ advocacy work. It aims to:
  • speak out and influence opinion-formers
  • do projects to tackle the root causes
  • educate girls, young women and society
To find out what you can do download the WAGGGS Advocacy Toolkit on Adolescent Health. Why don’t you encourage your friends to join in on your advocacy action?

Dance4life

Dance4life is a biennial global dance event taking place on the Saturday before World AIDS Day. In 2004, more than 20,000 young people in South Africa, Indonesia and the Netherlands moved to the same rhythm to make a powerful statement. For 2006, groups of young people United Kingdom, Germany, Vietnam, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Denmark, Russia and Kenya are going to ‘start dancing, stop AIDS’.   Join a dance event near you or start your own Dance4Life party with your Girl Guide/Girl Scout group. Have a look at the Dance4life website and learn the drill and the shout and listen to the dance4life track that hit the charts in the Netherlands and even reached number 1 in Hungary.

Tell us about it!

  Use the comment section and tell us what you did on World AIDS Day or about a project you are working on at the moment. Additionally you can post your event on the World AIDS campaign events calendar.

(FACT: It is 3.4 times more like for a young women than a young man to get infected with HIV/AIDS)

HIV and AIDS projects around the world

Out of the many projects WAGGGS’ members are running around the world we would like to introduce one from each of WAGGGS’ regions. 

Africa Region

Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme for Girls and Young Women in Malawi


The Malawi Girl Guides Association runs an HIV/AIDS Awareness Project that is funded by UNPFA in three districts of the country. They aim to extend the project to all other districts they operate in.   This project started in 2002 and to date the Association has trained 45 regional trainers, 30 Guiders and 60 Cadets (Peer Educators) in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues and rights, and psychosocial support life skills for orphans and other vulnerable children. Approximately 5,400 girls and young women have been reached with SRH information and services and 900 orphans and other vulnerable children have been reached with psychosocial life skills.   The Association has also documented best practices in SRH/HIV/AIDS which have been printed and distributed to members and other partners. Information and education materials have also been developed and SRH/HIV/AIDS messages have been incorporated into the Association’s already existing Girl Guide Laws to make them relevant to Girl Guiding programmes.

Asia Pacific Region

Girl Scouts of Taiwan take part in Adolescent HIV/AIDS education workshops

To address two of WAGGGS’ advocacy messages ‘fight AIDS’ and ‘it’s important to talk about sex’, Girl Scouts of Taiwan held two adolescent HIV and AIDS education workshops in Hsin-Chu County on 18 and 19 March, 2006.

  The workshop was based on the WAGGGS AIDS Badge Curriculum, covering prevention, care support and human rights. It aimed to teach the adolescents who took part not only to have the right attitude and knowledge about sex but also how to protect themselves against HIV and AIDS. 

Western Hemisphere Region

Brazil’s 'Listen, Learn, Live' project 

The ‘Federacão de Bandeirantes do Brasil’ has been running the project ‘Listen, Learn, Live’ since 2000 to promote awareness of HIV/AIDS issues among adolescents and young adults. It is being supported by UNESCO, UNAIDS, ICASO, INDCP and the government via the Ministry of Health. 

  To date, the project has reached more than 50,000 young people aged between 12 and 21 through several events and an internet site which answers queries related to HIV and AIDS. Earlier this year, the Association’s ‘AIDS Prevention Distance Learning Internet Course’ won ‘Honorary Mention’ at the 6th Sao Paulo Virology Congress where it competed along with 128 entrants.

Arab Region

Tunisian Guides and Scouts join the fight against HIV/AIDS 

Les Scouts Tunisiens held a seminar for leaders on AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases last December in support of World AIDS Day and the WAGGGS call to action.

This event was part of a range of educational seminars for Rangers and Guides held throughout 2006 in collaboration with the international humanitarian aid organization Medecins Sans Frontières.

In their continued focus on adolescent health, the Association also participated in the ‘Childhood and Adolescents’ training seminar, organized by the Arab Women’s Centre for Training and Research in conjunction with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Hammamet in September and December 2006.

Europe Region

Hungarian Girl Guides launch fun activities to raise awareness 

Hungarian Girl Guides have joined the worldwide campaign against HIV and AIDS. Throughout the past years, rangers and leaders have organized interactive programmes with games and questionnaires on the issue in high schools.

  On World AIDS Days in the past they have carried out red ribbon campaigns in local communities, where girls have given red ribbons and bookmarks to local people highlighting important facts about AIDS in Hungary and around the world. In the Association’s new educational programme there is a whole new chapter dedicated to the issue of HIV and AIDS to increase awareness of the disease.