WASHINGTON – In honor of National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day (NYHAAD) April 10, Advocates for Youth, an organization that champions efforts to help young people make informed and responsible decisions about their reproductive and sexual health, will partner with youth activists to raise awareness of the impact of HIV and AIDS on young people.
The day will feature a briefing on Capitol Hill and a Facebook Live chat, as well as events sponsored by more than 20 allied organizations in cities throughout the country to talk about the prevalence of HIV and AIDS among young people and highlight their work to fight the disease and the stigma surrounding it. Mariah Johnson, a student at Tidewater Community College and NYHAAD Youth Ambassador will be leading testing efforts on campus, distributing free condoms, and hosting events around sexual health.
“National Youth HIV AIDS Awareness Day is important to me since close to 25% of new infections are between the ages of 13-24,” said Daniel Driffin, co-founder of THRIVE SS, a Georgia based organization that works to stop HIV stigma in the south. “I learned my HIV status at 22, and with the advancements of treatment as prevention, we can significantly decrease other young people from becoming positive.”
Daniel also recently spoke at the Democratic National Convention, the first positive speaker in 12 years, and addressed how HIV disproportionately affects black and Latino gay and bisexual men.
One in five new HIV infections occur in people ages 13 to 24, making youth activism imperative in the fight for an AIDS-free generation. On National Youth HIV &AIDS Awareness Day, young people will ask their peers and policymakers to sign the National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day Bill of Rights that calls for the right to live free from oppression, the rights to education, prevention, treatment and care, and the right to live without criminalization, discrimination and stigma.
