Mali UNAIDS Youth Summit On HIV - Day 1, The Plan

So, I’m on a plane at London Heathrow about to set off to Bamako, Mali...

Why?



Two weeks ago an unexpected email floated into my inbox from a woman at UNAIDS; inviting me to attend and facilitate a work group (on traditional media methods) at the Mali Youth Summit on HIV.

Crazy times.

But no time to mull over – 2 minutes later and I practically super-glued my spot at the conference; though I needed to know more about this spectacular event.

The guys at UNAIDS called me up and explained how this summit was a first, bringing together youth ambassadors and facilitators from across the world to network, discuss HIV/AIDS work, and collectively create a ‘Call to Action’ for people everywhere to get on board before the UNAIDS High Level Summit in June (8th to the 10th – falling ever so conveniently on my birthday)

This trip might as well be an early birthday gift though.

I’ve always been a passionate campaigner for HIV/AIDS rights. In 2008 I was part of the Ctrl.Alt.Shift team that carried out the ‘Nothing To Declare’ stunts; where we protested outside the South Korean, Saudi Arabian and Russian embassies in London against the nations’ HIV travel restrictions.

Note: The same Ctrl.Alt.Shift team produced 5 stunning award-winning short films on various social issues; one in particular was called ‘HIV: The Musical’; a satirical look at the shameful stigmas surrounding HIV and AIDS.



I’m also currently a ‘HIV Champion’ at Christian Aid, following and supporting the work of the organisation’s HIV unit.

But perhaps what drives me to care about this now manageable chronic disease (once considered a death sentence in the early 1990s), is my time witnessing HIV stigma first-hand during a reporting trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008. I met dozens of HIV orphans, abandoned and discriminated against because of their HIV status.

I hate the term (and the ethos of) favouritism, but one boy, 17 year old Congolese football wonderkid Balamika, particularly struck me (with his story and rock hard feet).

He had been thrown out of his home in his early teen years for being HIV positive. He lived on raw mangos and rats, survived in the streets for years before being recruited and rehabilitated by a Christian Aid on-ground project; that taught him the basic communication skills, as well as how to drive and brick lay (opening up his very limited career options).

Tell Balamika’s story in the UK and we have a child services situation, perhaps a local media frenzy (especially if it were a cute defenceless middle class white girl in Balamika’s shoes). However, Balamika remained calm, reflective, and assured he could eventually produce a good life for himself. Nevertheless he still yearns to know why HIV turned him into the ‘black sheep’ of his community, and hopes that others will not have to experience such scarring traumas.

That was 2008. How far have we come? What more must we do? What are the bigger issues we must tackle when it comes to alleviating the lives of those with HIV/AIDS?

Well, 2011 marks the 30th anniversary since the first diagnosis of HIV, and my reading material for this journey towards Mali (and the 40 degrees that awaits me) tells me nearly 30 million people have died from AIDS, and globally over 33 million people are estimated to be living with HIV today.

Balamika is undoubtedly a needle in a global haystack, but the monumental figures aforementioned depict why HIV/AIDS is still our biggest public health challenge to date.

That is why the conversation needs to keep flowing as to how are we can educate people on HIV/AIDS; which includes contraception and prevention, beating the stigma, and how we can really push companies, governments and the public to back the HIV patent pool – in turn making antiretroviral (ARV) therapy and HIV treatment affordable for everyone (regardless of their age, race, class and location in the world).

Approximately 3 million people around the world are alive thanks to ARV treatment. It’s generally a successful process as after two years on the therapy, 8 out of 10 people who started it are still alive today.

Great. Yes?

Yet 10-15 million who need ARVs right now are simply unable to access them; meaning worldwide 2.5 people are infected by HIV for every person that begins treatment. There’s NOTHING right about that stat.

And so, this Mali youth summit and potential ‘Call to Action’ couldn’t have come at a better time. I look forward to seeing what juicy, innovative ideas my peers and I can conjure up – as I promise (more so than hope) that whatever we produce, it will slam a massive speed bump in the vicious circle that is HIV and AIDS injustice.



And we're off.