Domestic Educational Campaigns

SLAM AIDS: Students Saving Lives with AIDS Medication

SLAM AIDS is a nation-wide awareness and advocacy campaign that engages students, activists, and local performance artists in discussions about HIV/AIDS in Africa using the creative and communicative power of art. Attendees learn about the work of GYPA and Project Namuwongo Zone B, and discover how they can provide direct support to people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa. Since its inception in 2004, SLAM AIDS has raised over $15,000 for people living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda.

Today, nearly 40 million men, women, and children are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. This pandemic is one of the greatest humanitarian crises and threats to global sustainability facing the world today. A full two-thirds of all new infections occur in sub-Saharan Africa. In the US and elsewhere in the developed world, anti-retroviral drugs have transformed HIV/AIDS from a virtual death sentence to a chronic, but manageable disease. Unfortunately, 95% of those currently infected live in impoverished countries that cannot afford these drugs. For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, where the pandemic has hit the hardest, only 100,000 people have access to ARVs — just 2% of those in desperate need of care.

As future leaders of the world, the burden falls upon youth to become involved in promoting proactive solutions to global challenges.

Africa: Whatever You Thought, THINK AGAIN!

THINK AGAIN! is a national town hall meeting series that brings together students, academics, and practitioners to explore topics such as poverty alleviation, conflict resolution, women? rights, and HIV/AIDS. The campaign highlights the many promising and successful human, political, economic, and technological solutions being implemented to help African communities reach the goals associated with sustainable development. GYPA hosted its first THINK AGAIN event at American University in Spring 2006.

GYPA believes there is a paramount need to change how Americans view, and consequently, interact with Africa. Throughout the media, images abound of African failure: genocide in Darfur, famine in Niger, tyranny in Zimbabwe, and diamond exploitation in Sierra Leone. However, the continent is also full of success stories. Throughout Africa, young leaders are taking the initiative to generate social change through innovative community-based organizations, market-based solutions, and efforts to promote peace between genders, tribes, communities, and countries.

Contact GYPA for more information or to host an event.