Hi Everyone!

My name is Melanie Altar and I am the Reproductive Health Associate at Americans for Informed Democracy.  Americans for Informed Democracy is a Baltimore-based organization that empowers and equips young people in the United States to address global issues – poverty, health, climate change, peace and security- through awareness-raising and actions that promote just and sustainable solutions on their campuses, in their communities, and nationally.  We are thrilled to be working with Snag Films, Lisa Russell and Governess Films.

American youth see the fight against HIV/AIDS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, as a calling they must respond to.  We have watched the struggle for HIV prevention, care and treatment in the US from an early age and have seen the development of successful interventions, such as the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and post-exposure prophylaxis.  These achievements give young people the inspiration they need to reach out for the baton of HIV/AIDS activism.

While HIV/AIDS affects and infects people of all ages, young people carry the largest burden of new infections.  Globally, there is an estimated eleven million people under the age of 25 currently living with HIV or AIDS.  As a consequence of the practice of transactional sex, which usually pairs a younger women with a wealthier and typically older man, young women ages 15-24 in sub-Saharan African are three times more likely to contract HIV than their male counterparts.  In order for young people to prevent new infections, they must receive comprehensive sexual education and accurate information about HIV before they are sexually active, as well as continued access to male and female condoms afterwards.

Americans for Informed Democracy is organizing a national reproductive and sexual health campaign called “Innovators for a Sustainable World”.  Through this campaign, AID hopes to encourage students to take action on their campuses to promote the betterment of international reproductive and sexual health conditions, including stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS.  HIV/AIDS and reproductive health issues are often discussed as if they were mutually exclusive, yet this is obviously not the case and integration of the two topics is imperative to creating effective progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, other STIs and poor reproductive health conditions. 

To learn more information and send in a proposal for the “Innovators for a Sustainable World” campaign, click here.

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