Nickie Imanguli's blog

Hope and Change In HIV Policies

2008-11-30T08:00:00-05:00

For almost three years, I have been writing with disdain about the ineffective and counterproductive international and domestic HIV and AIDS policies adopted by the US government. However, with yet another World AIDS Day on the horizon, my message for this year is full of hope.

Yes, hope, partially due to my faith that a new Obama Administration will mean positive changes in the issues that I care about, but mostly because, after eight years of bad policies, hope is all I have left.

Over the years I have advocated for increased funding for international family planning, desperately needed to ease the burden of maternal and infant mortality. I have fought for the repeal of the anti-prostitution loyalty oath, a policy that forces U.S. and country health groups receiving U.S. funding to denounce prostitution as a condition for receiving those funds, even when their mission is to work on HIV prevention among sex workers. I have battled Congress to eliminate the onerous 33 percent earmark in the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) that required countries to use one-third of their prevention funds for abstinence-until-marriage programs. And, most recently, I have worked to abolish the HIV travel ban that prevents people living with HIV from traveling to the U.S.

The past two years showed minor shifting in these onerous policies. International family planning received a small increase, the 33 percent funding requirement for abstinence-until-marriage was loosened (but only slightly), and the statutory HIV travel ban was removed under during the PEPFAR's reauthorization.

However, the anti-prostitution loyalty oath still stands; the new "abstinence - be faithful" funding requirements still make it difficult for countries to use their prevention dollars in a comprehensive prevention strategy; and the HIV travel ban has not been completely repealed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

So, as this year's World AIDS Day comes and goes, I hope that the new inhabitants of the White House and the 111th Congress will expand the small victories into positive policies that will make a difference. I hope that some day in the near future, every individual will have access to all information and resources they need to make healthy choices - - regardless of their lifestyle choices, sexual orientation, or gender identity. I hope that some day, science will dictate policy not ideology. I hope that some day soon no one will travel restrictions to the United States based on their HIV status. And I sure do hope that one of these days when this ban is lifted the United States will become a host country to the International AIDS Conference.

A Thank You to Congresswoman Barbara Lee

2008-08-12T17:10:47-04:00

As I was looking thorough the massive International AIDS Conference booklet, full of sessions taking place at the conference and trying to decide which session I wanted to attend, I saw that Congresswoman Barbara Lee was one of the speakers at the session about travel restrictions on people living with HIV. Barbara Lee is well known for being an activist in the sexual and reproductive rights movement--more specifically an advocate for sexual and reproductive rights of young people in the United States and abroad.

During her speech, Rep. Lee talked about how Congress removed the travel restriction for people with living with HIV; however, the Department of Health and Human Services has yet to lift its restriction. Hopefully, the ban will be lifted completely before the end of President Bush's term. When I posed a question during the session as to what we, young people, should demand of our next president, Congresswoman Lee, without any hesitation, came up with a very comprehensive list of demands that included: the repeal of the global gag rule, integration of family planning services and comprehensive sexual education into PEPFAR, removal of the prostitution pledge, and finding an effective way to address gender violence. She also did not forget the domestic policy reforms that included defunding abstinence-only programs, authorization of the REAL Act, support for clean needle exchange programs, and the creation of a domestic PEPFAR. In other words, she listed everything I, as an advocate for the sexual and reproductive health of young people, have been working towards for almost three years now.

It's comforting to have a policy maker speak out and advocate on behalf of vulnerable youth. After having been disappointed by President Clinton's failure to mention young people in his keynote speech and Ban Ki-moon's failure to make a commitment to youth during his visit to the Youth Pavilion, I was comforted to know that youth are not alone as long as we have policy makers such as Congresswoman Barbara Lee on our side. So, I want to take this opportunity to thank her, once again, for doing such amazing work with policy in Congress and for not being afraid to speak out on issues concerning the sexual and reproductive health of young people.

An Open Letter to President Bill Clinton

2008-08-12T10:47:47-04:00

This post was authored by Nicki Imanguli and Abbey Marr.

An Open Letter to President Bill Clinton

Dear President Clinton,

You have let us down. So far, you are the best President of our lifetimes, and you have let us down. We eagerly awaited your keynote speech at the International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Mexico City because we wanted to hear your commitments to overcoming the plight of HIV and AIDS, including your commitments to reproductive rights and health of young people. You see, as young women, we count on you and other decision makers, to recognize our rights, respect us as young adults, and provide the necessary resources that will allow us, as young people, to take responsibility for our actions and decisions.

In your speech, you expressed your support for important issues such as the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, the creation of a separate UN agency for women for gender-based violence prevention in the UN, and the importance of dealing with the social realities of HIV and AIDS in low and middle income countries. We applaud you for that.

However, you failed to mention the population that has the highest rate of new HIV infections--young people. By failing to acknowledge young people, you have denied us your respect and your commitment to provide resources that not only include condoms and other forms of contraception, but also access to comprehensive sex education both domestically and abroad. And we are disappointed. Further, by grouping a 15-year-old young man living with AIDS and his 20-year-old sister in the same population as children, you ignored the needs, rights, and realities of young people, ages of 15-24, as one of the fastest growing populations with HIV. So we must ask this question - where is your commitment to us?

Ironically, a few minutes after your speech, we stumbled upon hope from an unlikely source. During a discussion, a representative of the current Bush Administration acknowledged the separate needs of young people in fighting the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Surprisingly, the representative we spoke with treated us with respect, by listening and recognizing our needs in the conversation. We explained how crucial and important it was for young people to have access to comprehensive sex education and HIV prevention education and how the current ideologically-driven abstinence-until-marriage policy incorporated into the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) undermined that information. His response began with an acknowledgment of current domestic and international policies and he encouraged us to take our energy, stories, and realities to the policy makers on the Hill. He seemed sincerely shocked by just how little information young people receive.

We realize that this conversation could be just empty rhetoric from an administration that has consistently compromised the health of young people through abstinence-only education policies domestically and internationally. However, we appreciated the discussion and acknowledgement that young people matter. The sexual and reproductive health of young people should not be a partisan issue. Democrats and Republicans should recognize the needs of young people to receive science-based, accurate sexual health information. This is an issue that cuts across party lines, and we sincerely hope that the next president--whether a Democrat or a Republican--will recognize the needs and realities of young people both abroad and domestically. We hope that a new administration will respect young people's rights, understand our need for resources, and facilitate an environment where we are empowered, rather than obstructed, by ideology and politics, to take responsibility for our sexual and reproductive health.

Sincerely,

Nickie Imanguli and Abbey Marr

Advocates For Youth

Rights. Respect. Responsibility.

Youth Gather in Mexico City for IAC

2008-07-31T11:04:50-04:00

This week, thousands of activists from around the world have united in Mexico City for the 17th International AIDS Conference. This is an incredibly exciting event for me, not only because it is my first International AIDS Conference, but also because I will be one of over 200 participants at the Youth Pre-Conference, organized by YouthForce.

The YouthForce, coordinated by Advocates for Youth, Ave de Mexico, Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS, TakingITGlobal, and Youth Coalition, is a coalition of non-governmental and international organizations working to ensure meaningful youth participation as well as partnerships between young people and adults to increase the visibility of youth HIV and AIDS issues before and during the International AIDS Conference. Since the establishment of YouthForce during the 2002 International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, during which only 200 young people participated, youth attendance more than quadrupled at the Toronto AIDS Conference in 2006 with more than 1,000 youth delegates attending the conference. In addition to the Youth Pre-Conference, Mexico City YouthForce has also sponsored a youth reception, the youth pavilion, a commitments desk, and an advocacy campaign, among others.

Unity among young people is crucial for this movement to succeed and the Mexico City Youth Pre-Conference is a great opportunity for young activists around the world to meet, network, and build coalitions. More than 25 years into the pandemic and with more than 6,000 young people infected with HIV each day, we need to work fast. Young people are at the center of the pandemic. In fact, young women ages 15-24 are the new face of HIV and AIDS.

Millions of people around the world have no access to reliable and comprehensive sex education. The majority of policy makers still feel like they can come up with curricula that are influenced by ideology instead of science, while we, the young people, have to suffer the consequences. But hopefully that is soon to be changed. At this year's International AIDS Conference, I look forward to building effective partnerships with other young people from around the world. We will take these partnerships back to our homes and leverage them to reach out to our policy makers. Let's face it: we have the testimonies, we have experiences, and we have the stories.

With this year's YouthForce advocacy campaign focusing on key messages that demand Rights, Respect, Responsibility, and Resources for young people, I look forward to establishing effective partnerships with not only the policy-makers at home, but also with global health organizations. These partnerships will demand commitments-commitments to provide comprehensive and accurate information, services and resources, respect, and a responsibility to empower young people to make healthy decisions. I am thrilled and excited to be one of hundreds of young people working together to have our voices heard!