Meheret Melles
Meheret Melles is a 20 year old Ethiopian-American student at the University of Maryland. She is on the International Youth Leadership Council at Advocates for Youth and a member of the Student Global AIDS Campaign.
Youth Reception Is 'Adults-Only'
August 16, 2006 - 2:17pm (Print)
Meheret Melles is a 20 year old Ethiopian-American student at the University of Maryland. She is on the International Youth Leadership Council at Advocates for Youth and a member of the Student Global AIDS Campaign.
To ask where youth may be at a youth reception sounds a bit silly, but the answer to my question was right upstairs. Of course there was a variety of sexy shirts that say money, access, and listen with messages on the back, reading the following: ½ of all new HIV infections are among young people under 25. We need youth-friendly services, including prevention, treatment, voluntary counseling and testing, and access to harm reduction programs. There was even a table for The Condom Project, where youth could make pins out of condoms and decorative fabric.
However, when I heard that famous youth icons like Alicia Keys were speaking, I walked downstairs to discover that only "VIP" guests could attend. Little did I know that very few of these "VIP" guests were youth. So what did I do?
Conference Opens with Youth Focusing on Health Care Workers
August 14, 2006 - 1:27pm (Print)
Meheret Melles is a 20 year old Ethiopian-American student at the University of Maryland. She is on the International Youth Leadership Council at Advocates for Youth and a member of the Student Global AIDS Campaign.
Attention! Attention! The International AIDS Conference of 2006 has finally begun! With warning from my fellow colleagues that endured three hours of waiting to register for the Conference, I decided to wake up early to make the registration process as brief as possible. With only 20 minutes spent for registration, I enjoyed the rest of the day exploring the Youth Pavillion, which included lounges for chill-out sessions and booths for organizations to offer information on youth-led international HIV prevention work.
The highlight of the day was surely the Opening Session of the Main Conference. Political leaders like the President of Liberia, Mrs. Ellen Johnson, the UNAIDS Director of HIV/AIDS, Peter Piot, and a globally-known couple with a fair amount of money--Bill and Melinda Gates. Even with all these "famous" speakers, the highlight of my day was the spontaneous demonstration organized by a US-based coalition of advocacy organizations, including my personal favorite the Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC), to fully fund the Fund for Health Care Workers (HCW) in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
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