Mark

Name: Mark

Organization / Company: Advocates for Youth Reporter

Mark, a 21 year old international development officer, music aficionado and self-indulgent writer, is positively salivating at the opportunity to serve as a Youth Web Correspondent at the UNGASS review in New York City. A veteran of Advocates for Youth’s International Youth Leadership Council, Mark has discussed the state of trans-Atlantic reproductive health policies with activists in Belgium, lobbied for responsible youth sexuality education on Capitol Hill and educated peers around his alma mater dressed as a six foot phallus named Woody. A committed believer in a multisectoral approach to combating the AIDS pandemic, he is also fully aware of the need for committed, passionate constituents to hold their respective governments and institutions accountable, and to demand full representation. He is more than happy to perform such duties. A native of Australia, he looks forward to the day that sensible, public health-based global health policies finally begin to meet the needs of his generation, and will gladly call out inefficient, pandering mass bureaucracy with little mincing of words. Marks holds a B.A. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland and blogs using a 4th generation iBook.

Mark's articles

When Science and Passions Collide: Another Perspective

by Mark, Advocates for Youth Reporter

August 17, 2006 - 9:06am (Print)

Mark Hiew is a reporter for the Toronto YouthForce. He can be reached at mark.hiew@gmail.com

It seemed like business as usual at the main pressroom on Day 3 of the International AIDS Conference in Toronto. Helene Gayle, President of the International AIDS Society, had just introduced Gregg Goncalves, of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), when the situation rapidly changed. Gregg ceded his spot to two positive black South African women, Sipho Mthathi and another TAC representative-an unusual act in such settings. As Sipho began to speak, a dozen members of the TAC stood up together, chanting slogans and holding signs reading "Gates is not the voice of (People with AIDS)!" and "Media: Activist not 'Hollywood' Conference."

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From Inclusion to Leadership

by Mark, Advocates for Youth Reporter

June 5, 2006 - 7:21am (Print)

I am on my way back to Washington, rolling away from the rollicking clatter of New York City and the seat of international administration at which over the past week, dozens of brilliant young activists have made their presence felt as profoundly as possible. As didactic and occasionally enthralling as the meeting was, I can’t seem to shake the lingering sense of disappointment at the ultimately mediocre strength of the session’s results. The final political declaration to come out of the 2006 UNGASS review was a mixed bag; encouragingly, it included the strongest youth language ever seen in such a document, as well as a demand for national targets (if not specific quantitative nor global ones) and some mention of putting life before intellectual property rights through access to generic drugs.

Paragraph 26 reads: “(Therefore, we) commit to address the rising rates of HIV infection among young people to ensure an HIV-free future generation through the implementation of comprehensive, evidence-based prevention strategies, responsible sexual behaviours, including the use of condoms, evidence-and skills-based, youth specific HIV education, mass media interventions, and the provision of youth friendly health services.”

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