ASEAN Regional Workshop on HIV/AIDS: Addressing Stigma and
Discrimination

The World Youth Foundation in cooperation with UNAIDS, Ministry of
Youth & Sports Malaysia, World Assembly of Youth and the Ministry of
Health Malaysia successfully hosted the above workshop from the 25-
28th April 2003 in Melaka, Malaysia. The workshop attracted 156 youth
representatives from various national youth coordination councils in
the ASEAN and non-ASEAN Region.

The workshop provided a forum for networking, sharing of knowledge
experiences and ideas on initiatives to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS
among youth and youth serving organizations and other stakeholders
besides promoting cross-country exchange of best practices for
implementing youth-friendly health services in the ASEAN region. A
skills building workshop on Reproductive Health of Adolescent Module
(RHAM) was conducted by the Family Planning Association of Melaka. At
the end of the skills building workshop participants acquired
leadership skills and life skills which would able them to educate
their peers both in and out of school setting effectively.

The workshop was a success and made a difference in addressing stigma
& discrimination related to HIV/AIDS. One fine example was the
respond given by one of the youth participants towards a PLWA who was
sharing his experience. The youth not only spoke out but hugged the
PLWA who was encouraged, touched and empowered by knowing that there
are so many young people out there who supported him and accepted
him for who he is. Following that, many other participants talked to
PLWA gave him more hugs and moral support.

On the final day of the workshop a group activity workshop on
developing an ASEAN Regional Youth Network on HIV/AIDS was conducted
by Mr Thomas Scalway of Panos Insitute London. This group activity
workshop saw the active participation of youth participants who were
very energetic, cooperative and attentive.

At the end of the workshop the participants unanimously agreed that
there is a need that an ASEAN Regional Youth Network on HIV/AIDS be
established to involve young people in the region to respond to
issues concerning AIDS. The World Youth Foundation is now embarking
on the next phase of establishing the network by the development of
mail discussion group /website thus evolving a networking structure
and partnership among youth and stakeholders in the field of youth
programmes and activities in the ASEAN region. In the coming days the
Foundation will be studying similar networks in this region and other
regions to draw inputs on the strength and weaknesses of such
networks before finalizing the final draft action plan.

To assist us to succeed we will need your help. We ask that youth
organizations in the ASEAN region in particular provide us with
information of your organization to be listed in our database, which
will be included in our Network. It will be essentially free of cost
and will provide free publicity for your organization. If you are
interest please contact us at wyf@... and we will send you
more details on how to submit your organization's information for
the Network.

The workshop was funded by Ministry of Youth & Sports Malaysia, the
ASEAN Secretariat and the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime
Minister's Department, Malaysia. .

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WYF.
World Youth Foundation
142/2 Complex Munshi Abdullah
Jalan Munshi Abdullah
75100 Melaka, Malaysia
Email: wyf@... Tel: 606 2815196/7 Fax:606 2820411
www.wyf.org.my