Livey van Wyk, AIDS peer educator from Namibia

You’ve just had a glimpse of our lives at home. We’ve come here today to talk to you in person about how AIDS is changing the lives of children and young people like us all over the world.

Young people living with HIV need support to be able to speak out and seek help without fear of being blamed. But in many countries, including my native Namibia, the stigma of AIDS is too powerful.

When I was 17, the same day I found out I was pregnant, I also found out I was HIV positive. My mother banished me to my grandmother’s farm. The local people were afraid of HIV. They didn’t want me living among them. When they saw me, they would throw stones at me. Most of the time I stayed inside with my grandmother, who prayed over me and waited for me to die.

What died in those lonely days were my dreams for the future. I didn’t know that a person living with HIV could have a future.

Whether or not you like it, young people are sexually active at an early age. But in many countries, young people either do not know how to protect themselves from HIV or they think it’s something that won’t happen to them.

I try to educate young people, to give AIDS a human face. But it is an uphill battle when stigma and discrimination rule. There are tens of thousands of young people living with HIV in Namibia. But I have never met another young person who is willing to speak openly and honestly about living with HIV. The others are too afraid.

This must change.  Young people have a big role to play in the fight against AIDS. But that can only happen when the environment exists to enable them to do that. Young people will get involved when they are not afraid to get tested for HIV and when they know that they will be given support and love when they get their results. When they are not made to feel that HIV is a punishment for their bad behavior.

Too often, the adults who are making decisions about how to deal with AIDS don’t consider the experiences of young people. They don’t think about what it is like to be young, alone and HIV positive. Imagine that, and let that motivate you to act. But before you act, you have to listen.