More Youth Voices means less HIV

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Twelve-year-old, Indian schoolgirl Prapti Ishwar Gilada (left) was the youngest delegate at the Barcelona conference.
Speaking at the Youth Reception she said: "The virus has been fast spreading among young people, and the irony is that we are the ones who are neglected the most. Most people do not tell us the truth."
Prapti also attended the MTV youth press conference in Barcelona alongside Bill Clinton. She is no stranger to activism and has participated in many Aids awareness events for children and young people in India,

including a 'skit' "Miss Disease Contest" which mimicked the Miss World pageant.
At another meeting, youth activists from the Barcelona Youth Force demanded to know why only 200 delegates under 24 were present among the 17,000 present at the conference.
Ralph Jager, an HIV positive 27-year old representative from the Swedish youth network Young-Positive, said: "One thing that would help campaigns is to replace the image of death with an image of youth and future life."
Intervention programmes for young people should include young people from now on, he stressed, adding: "Hitherto, Aids prevention was always for them, not by them."
A young Kenyan activist warned: The problems a lot of young people have in poor areas are often made worse by the seemingly easy escape routes of 'sugar daddies' and substance abuse."
She continued: "Don´t forget that in certain areas, parents and relatives exploit us and we have no social or economic independence. It is vital that we gain education early...Young women in Kenya need choices as sexual beings. We can't just be told to 'Abstain' and 'Be Faithful', we need to know about other options like condoms."

Sandra Thurman, head of the International Aids Trust, echoed these concerns: "More than half of new infections are under 24 years of age...We´re not giving young people enough