HIV/AIDS affects us all, including youth. Many youth are unaware about their risks and many do not have access to testing sites or places that offer free condoms. I found this to be a problem when I was 15 years old. I knew nothing about HIV but for some reason I felt a strong urge to get up and do something about it. I was 15. What can a 15 year old do to help? I was too young right? NO! I found out there aren’t any age limits to get up and stand up for something you know is right. For three years, I coordinated a fun run for World AIDS Day and asked my peers for donations for a local HIV clinic and to my surprise, I was overwhelmed with support from my peers. I didn’t know others were interested in what I was trying to do.
Now college was a huge obstacle. What do I do in a place much larger than my high school and full of people I do not know? My first year in college I was out of state and I didn’t know what they had planned for World AIDS Day but to my surprise, on that beautiful and sunny morning of World AIDS Day, I saw (what it felt like) tons of people passing out condoms and encouraging people to get tested. I was in awe of the various organizations, fraternities, sororities and even student volunteers that got together for this one cause. I attended a Historically Black College my first year and it was very clear that they understood the importance of reaching out to young minorities. 80% of new HIV cases among youth aged 13-24 are youth of color. Then hit me – I am, based on the statistics alone, at more of a risk than I really thought.
I transferred schools my sophomore year in college and once again, I waited for World AIDS Day to come around so I can see what this new campus had to offer their students. I was shocked and even disgusted that there was not even a red balloon or a ribbon in sight. I walked everywhere on this gloomy campus and people seemed to be more concerned about hiding from the rain. I immediately wanted to transfer back to the school I came from but then I realized, maybe I can make a difference on this campus.
I reached out to the HIV clinic that I donated money to when I was in high school and asked if I could volunteer. The woman who answered the phone couldn’t be more excited to get me started. She taught me how to plan events, get sponsors and how to be a better leader. I used the skills she gave me and decided to plan an event of my own on my campus for the next World AIDS Day. I connected with various organizations and people who wanted to see our campus get more involved and they wanted to promote HIV awareness and prevention. We planned out a week’s worth of events where we had rapid HIV testing on campus, HIV positive speakers attend Human Sexuality classes and, of course, passed out thousands of condoms to the students. I repeated the same event the next year and since I started officially working at the clinic, I became a source for organizations to reach out to in order to get condoms and resources about HIV testing.
From then, I really developed a passion for HIV prevention and now my focus is to target youth. I want to encourage them to be advocates at any age, to get tested and to use condoms. I want to be a leader and a voice for the youth. I was the coordinator for a group of Youth Peer Educators and from that program, we created this – SacPOP. Since the grant ended (all non-profits know the struggle of grant funded programs), I was unable to keep the Youth Peer Educator program but what I did keep was SacPOP. I use it as a tool to reach out to youth using social media. It is a work in progress but I don’t want to stop my fight. I don’t want to give up on our youth. I still want to be that voice.
I am saying all this because I was a 15 year old who just wanted to help and now this is my passion. I hope this encourages another teenager or a college student to be the voice someone else needs.
Today is National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and today could be the day that youth in your community to get involved and motivated to make a change. Who knows, today might be the day where YOU, yes YOU, will become an advocate as well.
