We live in a world that has two hundred million youth living in poverty, 130 million youth are non-literate, 88 million are unemployed and 10 million young people are living with HIV/AIDS. Most young people (roughly 85%) live in developing countries.
During this three day training period, YCI has helped me prepare myself to face some of these issues. Day two has a significant value for my learning; YCI brought in two Canadians who have been living with HIV. They spoke to us about their experiences in Canada what it is like to be HIV+. From them we were able to ask as many questions as we wanted, ranging from general info on HIV to personal questions about when and how they think they contracted the virus. Ester, a native from Zimbabwae, was asked the question "In which country did you feel a higher degree of stigma, your homeland or Canada?" I found it apsolutely astonishing that she replied with Canada. I encourage you all to become more educated on the topic of HIV/AIDS, get tested and help reduce the stigma; AIDS is becoming an epidemic everywhere, not just Africa. 60,000 Canadians are infected with the HIV virus and that number is increasing rapidly.
We have convered such a wide variety of topics in just our short three days. However, I think Gender will be my most challenging issue to tackle in the field once situated in Tanzania.
-Out of over 180 countries, only 13 are currently headed by women. (march 2007)
-Only 1% of the world's assets are in the name of women.
-70% of people in abject poverty- living on less than $1 per day- are women.
-Globally, women make up 60% of the 15-24 year olds who are HIV+
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