Youth Conference–

an Annual Highlight

“ Act positive – AIDS affects us all” is not only the slogan of the campaign, but also the guiding concept of the Youth Conference, which is an important part of our campaign.

It is a big conference to which all young people eager to take a stand against HIV/AIDS in the developing world are invited.

For the first conference, the German NGO Kindernothilfe e.V. hosted us in Duisburg in 2008.

Thisyear ACET Slovakia is hosting the conference in Bratislava from 13 until 15 November.

Spending the whole weekend together, you’ll learn everything about the campaign and the topic of HIV/AIDS while meeting lots of interesting young people from other countries.

A variety of workshops will be offered, approaching the topic in different ways.

You can get involved creatively by doing theatre with a theatre group from South Africa, or join an action in the city centre of Bratislava. Other workshops are about planning and organising your own activities in your hometown or about the various aspects and extensive consequences of HIV/AIDS and how to look at it from different perspectives.

Of course there will be also a lot of experts on the topic, who will give interesting background information and can’t wait to answer your questions.

All this will proceed in a relaxed, multicultural setting in which you can exchange experiences with young people from the Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia Czech Republic, Ukraine, Belarus and South Africa.

Who knows, maybe you’ll find new friends or get inspiration for a campaign at your school?!

Last but not least, there will be plenty of fun, too, including an excellent concerts of Slovakian bands.

Of course we want this and the following conferences to contribute to our huge goal of collecting 1,000,000 signatures and appealing to the members of the EU Parliament to fight against HIV/AIDS much more consistently.

Therefore participants will discuss – and hopefully adopt – a EU Petition prepared by a few young people from Slovakia during the conference. this petition will be handed over to the European Parliament.

We hope to raise awareness among young people on the issue of HIV/AIDS as an urgent and global problem and to motivate them to act against it!

So we’re looking forward to this Youth Conference, hoping it will provide a great platform for you to share and gain a lot of experiences!