New Stars Shine

Hello! It has been a whirlwind of a month. I wanted to focus my attention on the new society that has opened up in Brighton: Youth Stop Aids. For those who are familiar with my blog, I have been working with YSA for a while now and decided it was time to take the leap and start my own society at University. Not the easiest of options as you can imagine, with a week, packed schedule of 32 hours work, full-time university and a home to care for, it was definitely a challenge. With the help of James Cole, Restless Development officer, I managed to format a plan of how I was going to start this. And through this, I thought it'd be good to share a few tips on how to set up a society: 1) PROMOTE! A society can only be successful if it opens up that way. The best way to start my new society was to join one of the biggest students Freshers Fair, in Sussex. Taking place at AMEX stadium, it was the perfect location to pitch up a table and raise awareness. 2) DRAW THEM IN! I t

Hello everyone! Apologies for the delay in recent blogging. Unfortunately I have been experiencing long term back problems, and in May it finally meant I could get the operation to restore my spinal disc. This meant I was pretty much unable to do a lot for a few months. However in that time I did manage to meet a few people from Youth Stop Aids, and give a few updates on what is happening. For those of you who don’t follow my blog, Youth Stop Aids is an organisation which tackles issues facing young people suffering from HIV/AIDS, targeting the stigmas society holds against these people. Not only this, but as a group we help fight the large organisations that hold the medicines people have a right too, we support those suffering and promote testing for all. By doing all of this and more, we hope to end AIDS by 2030! So I have recently decided to join up with Youth Stop Aids in Sussex. With their help my aim is to bring a new society to Brighton University, which

Good morning, It has been a while since my last post, I have been rushed off my feet with university and extra projects- as well as a full time job! As you know from my previous post, I am raising money for Biwati's Children Home: 'Established to protect children displaced by Kenyan post-election violence in 2007, the Biwati Community School was founded in Cham gi Wadu in 2010 by a group of 10 local women led by Jayne Awuor Owino. Their goal was to provide children with a safe educational environment as well as hope for a secure future because many of these children were being exploited through forced child labour and sexual abuse. The school comprises 100 children, 15 of whom suffer from maternal HIV infection. Whilst a large number of the children are orphans, many stay with elderly grandmothers. Some have been abandoned by their relatives and are homeless and these are accommodated group members in their own homes. There are two retired teachers, one of whom is th

Hello! It has come to that point again, where I feel the inner urge to splurge. Rather than high street shops I much prefer to set up a good JustGiving page, and start raising money. This month my focus is on Kenya. I want to work with Youth Stop Aids in Brighton to raise money for a small childrens' home called Biwati. In Kenya there are 1.5 million people living with HIV (UNAIDS Gap Report 2016), with over 35,000 AIDs related deaths, making HIV/AIDS joint fourth in the largest HIV epidemic. More specifically, over 190,000 children in 2013 died of AIDS related illnesses. Children are more commonly infected through mother-to-child transmission, either during childbirth, breastfeeding, or during pregnancy. Youth Stop Aids aim to end the statistics, and put an end to HIV/AIDS by 2030. They are youth-led and speak out to ensure governments, global institutions and corporations are doing their bit. They work on empowering young people across the globe. By ending the stigmas

On March 16th 2017, a collective of intelligent, passionate young people came together in support of Youth Stop Aids. Youth Stop Aids is a movement campaigning to end AIDS by 2030. As a brilliant man once put: 'In the face of the grave threat posed by HIV/AIDS, we have to rise above our differences and combine our efforts to save our people. History will judge us harshly if we fail to do so now, and right now' - Nelson Mandela (International AIDS conference, 2000) With DFID Minister. 17 years on, and we are still campaigning, still raising awareness and still reducing the stigmas around HIV/AIDS. New infections fell by 38% and we are no longer referring to HIV/AIDS as a death sentence.   I ventured to London on the 16th March, arriving fairly early on a sunny London morning I was greeted by a sea of volunteers, we each shared our stories on why we were here and why we think it was important. The campaign this particular day was called, 'It Ai