http://aiesec.org/AI World AIDS Day: AIESEC invites global youth to Understand, Experience and Act ROTTERDAM, December 1 st, 2008- On this World AIDS Day, AIESEC members across Africa and Asia are creating a wave of change through a global initiative with Standard Chartered Bank that will educate 300,000 young people on HIV and AIDS by 2010. AIESEC invites young people across the world to join the initiative to build the skills, networks and international experience required to take on the challenges posed by the HIV and AIDS pandemic. “Living with HIV” is a global initiative of Standard Chartered Bank in partnership with AIESEC, empowering young people across Africa and Asia to explore their role in facing the challenges of HIV and AIDS. A component of the banks broader programme to educate 1 million people worldwide by 2010, the initiative gives students and recent graduates the opportunity to understand the issues through workshops, experience the reality first-hand in their communities and act to further spread education and awareness as HIV and AIDS ‘champions’. Emma Kerubo, a 21 year old Kenyan student of Finance, has travelled to Nigeria as an HIV and AIDS ‘champion’ and has returned to Kenya as a peer educator. Through the program, Emma feels she has made an important contribution and developed the experience and networks she will need to make a positive change. “I left my comfort zone, my home country Kenya, to go to Nigeria a place where I did not know anyone before hand to create awareness on the HIV and AIDS issue. What motivated me to go was the fact that I was to meet AIESEC members in Nigeria who share the same values as I do… The fact that I was a young person who had come from another country to voluntarily create awareness on HIV and AIDS to fellow young people had a major positive impact on my mission”, says Emma. From October 2007 to October 2008 this initiative between AIESEC and Standard Chartered Bank has reached 65,000 young people in 17 African and Asian countries. In of these countries multicultural teams of young people have been conducting education sessions, multiplying the effect of the valuable HIV Champions network established by Standard Chartered Bank. Vanessa Green, Group Sustainability Manager who runs ‘Living with HIV' globally at Standard Chartered Bank believes the program is a powerful contribution to building the generation of leaders to address the issues of HIV and AIDS. "Through our "Living with HIV" program, we have developed a highly effective workplace HIV education model that has been rolled out to all our employees. We are freely sharing our HIV education tools for other organizations in order to educate one million people on HIV and AIDS by 2010 in order to reduce the numbers of new HIV infections. We are proud that AIESEC has teamed up with us to reach 300,000 young adults, an age-group significantly impacted by HIV, and who represent tomorrow's leaders", says Ms. Green. Involving more than 65,000 students from over 411 secondary schools and a host of young interns from across the globe, the initiative is open to students and recent graduates interested developing themselves and others to in make a difference. Emma Kerubo feels this initiative has equipped her with new perspectives and a path to make change as a young person. “I am a university student studying Business and my course of study is not directly in line with the issue of HIV and AIDS. This has not stopped me from contributing to the fight against HIV and AIDS and it will not stop me in future”, says Emma. --

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