HHD convenes panel on HIV/AIDS at Youth Employment Summit in Egypt

(December, 2002) Health and Human Development Programs (HHD), a division of Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), convened a distinguished panel on HIV/AIDS and other work-related health issues at the Youth Employment Summit in Alexandria, Egypt, on September 10, 2002.

Young people are most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Half of all new infections are in youth ages 15–24. Nearly 2.5 million youths were infected with HIV in 2001. Comprehensive prevention efforts in Africa could prevent as many as 18 million HIV infections by 2015, according to the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health.

The panel presentation, HIV/AIDS, Health, Safety and the Youth Employment Summit: A Call to Action, described several outstanding policies and programs from around the world:

• Panelist Athi Geleba founded the Mdantsane Youth Academy in Capetown, South Africa in 1998 out of concern for the growing number of young people wandering the streets with no hope for the future. Her academy offers HIV prevention, counseling, and care, as well as education and training for young people to pursue employment.

• Dr. Clifford Panter described a progressive corporate program offered by DaimlerChrysler, South Africa, providing HIV prevention and treatment services that extend beyond the corporation’s immediate employees to also benefit their families.

• Mr. Bernard Gardiner, new head of the HIV program at the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva, Switzerland, spoke about the role that stigma and discrimination play in holding people back from seeking the information and services they need. Gardiner brought sample materials from the IFRC’s new global, anti-stigma campaign, “Pass it on!”, including a IFRC video entitled “Living With…”, which features cameos of IFRC employees living with AIDS who had the courage to share their status. According to Gardiner, the employees’ stories ultimately stimulated IFRC, a major, international humanitarian organization, to change its own HIV/AIDS policies and programs on behalf of its staff.

• Anand Grover, a human rights lawyer in India, founded the Mumbai Lawyers Collective to provide legal protection for people living with HIV/AIDS. He shared successfully defended cases of workers who lost their jobs when employers discovered they were HIV positive.

• Sonia Smith, a young lawyer representing the International Labor Organization (ILO) Global Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work, presented the ILO Policy and Code of Practice, which is being adapted to the interests and needs of young people.

• Dr. Cherif Soliman, director of the country office for Family Health International (FHI’s), Egypt, briefly described Egypt’s efforts in HIV prevention and FHI’s Youth Net project involving young people in HIV prevention and reproductive health efforts.

HHD’s Director, Cheryl Vince Whitman, moderated the panel and challenged delegates to expand on these burgeoning programs. “Let us act so that, looking back ten years from now, we will find it much more typical that employers, multi-national corporations, and local enterprises take pride in providing HIV prevention and care services as a part of their social and moral responsibility, instead of the situation today when there are only a handful of progressive examples to share," urged Vince Whitman.