AFRO-NETS> Supporting Young African Women to Participate in the ESA Symposium

[Janet Feldman <kaippg@earthlink.net>]

Supporting Young African Women to Participate in the ESA Symposium
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26-30 November 2002


As the date for the Eastern and Southern African Symposium on Young 
Women and AIDS draws nearer, there is concern amongst young women ap-
plicants that they may not participate in the event if the IYSCA Se-
cretariat (the organising team) does not support them to participate 
in the Symposium. In this regard, we would like to appeal to anyone 
who has information on how these eligible participants can get sup-
port to contact us.

Although fundraising efforts are continuing, there is a concern among 
applicants that the organisers are not doing enough to identify do-
nors that can support the initiative. We would like to ensure all 
young women and men out there that we are doing the best we can to 
ensure that students from universities, and young women and men from 
CBOs and youth movements participate. We have sent Proposals to a 
wide range of donors, including UNAIDS, who we hope will respond 
positively in the next few weeks. So far, we are glad to report that 
UNIFEM (Eastern and Central Africa) and UNFPA (Kenya) have agreed to 
fund a fraction of the budget. We are hoping that other donors will 
follow suit and thus support your participation.

An excerpt from a 15-year-old applicant from Southern Africa read: 
"It seems to me I will never be able to participate in any of these 
conferences despite the fact I am intelligent, hard working, I help 
orphans all over Africa, and I am willing to make presentations. It 
looks like your conferences are only for the students from elite 
families. What do they know about watching their village die of AIDS, 
what do they know about hunger, what do they know about living with-
out running water, electricity, and medical care? How can they speak 
for me and how can they speak for homeless children? It seems to me 
my voice and the voice of other African students/youth will never be 
realized, simply because we do not have financial resources or have 
the "right" connections. No wonder Africa is dying a slow death."

This concern is just one in many that we continue receiving each day, 
even as we encourage participants to seek local avenues of fundrais-
ing. Most of them insist that as young people, most agencies would 
not support them because they do not have "connection" and do not be-
long to big agencies. If, indeed, this is true, then we are witness-
ing a sad situation in which the most affected category of Africa's 
population - young women - may actually be least represented at the 
ESA Symposium. This will be most unfortunate.

As the organisers of the ESASYA Symposium, we recognise that it is 
possible that we may have overlooked other sources of support during 
the fundraising process for the ESA Symposium. In this regard, we 
would like anyone who has information on other sources of funding for 
an initiative such as this to let us know. If you are a do-
nor/development agency and can support a young woman to participate, 
please let us know: Our list of requests for support from young women 
in the region and beyond is overflowing.

As the organisers of the forthcoming Second International Youth and 
Students Conference on AIDS, we are also requesting that in order for 
us to maximise the participation of young women and men, we need sup-
port. Organisations working with young women and men also need sup-
port to implement preparatory activities that they may come up with. 
We hope that all youth-friendly individuals and organisations will 
respond very positively to this SOS.

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The Conference Secretariat
II International Youth and Students Conference on HIV/AIDS (IYSCA '03)
P.O Box 13542-00100
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254-2-245-311
     +254-733-568-063/844-138
     +254-722-297-194
mailto:iysca@iysca.org
http://www.iysca.org

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