Adolescents and young people

Half of all new cases of HIV infection worldwide are among young people aged 15 to 24, with girls at particular risk. Knowing that a failure to educate young people may be a death sentence, UNFPA supports a wide variety of programmes to protect this vulnerable population and enlist the participation of young people in action to end the epidemic.

Education opens up opportunities for girls like these young students from Pakistan. Delaying marriage and the onset of sexual activity can help them avoid the health risks associated with unwanted and too-early pregnancies, as well as sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. Photo: Jonette I. Stubbs

• Calling HIV/AIDS “the greatest threat to their generation”, youth from nearly 90 countries adopted the Dakar Youth Empowerment Strategy, resolving to lead the crusade against HIV/AIDS and promote sexual responsibility—including the right to say no to sex and to use condoms if sexually active. The strategy was developed in August at the Fourth World Youth Forum.



• A new youth centre opened in Vientiane, Laos, to provide social activities, skills training, counselling and reproductive health information and services. Adolescents were taught about HIV/AIDS, and a referral network was established with the National Centre for the Control of AIDS.



• Teams of trained and uniformed distribution agents went door-to-door with leaflets, condoms and contraceptives in an activity of Ethiopian Aid, an NGO that provides services from job training to health care for street children, with a full range of reproductive health services.