Unite to Fight AIDS Tour
Introduction
There are few things as powerful as hearing a young woman stand before you and talk quietly but steadily about the death of her parents from AIDS. Or a young man talking about the moment the doctor took him to one side and told him his HIV test result was positive. Hearing about the stinging words of stigma from the person who had to endure them; or the injustice of treatment coverage from one lucky enough to receive it, brings the human reality of the AIDS pandemic very sharply into focus.
Each year the Student Stop AIDS Campaign brings the voices of young people affected by HIV or AIDS from across the world to the UK. As well as visiting universities and schools right around the country, educating and inspiring the students, the speakers also visit parliament to share their stories.
What is the SPW Unite to Fight AIDS Tour?
The Tour is an opportunity to hear the real stories behind the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Each year over 5 weeks we travel across the country to nearly 30 universities and 60 schools as part of the Student Stop AIDS Campaign and dance4life joint tour. The tour aims to engage and inspire young people in the UK to take action and become agents for change to help tackle HIV and AIDS. SPW believes that young people in the UK who are knowledgeable about HIV are in a powerful position to make a difference to the global HIV pandemic and that to make this happen they must be approached in a way that is appropriate and engaging to them.
How do I get my university society involved?
What do we have to do?
If you want to be involved and host a speaker tour evening at your university campus, there are a few important things that we would like you to do to help us provide an inspiring and cost effective tour.
- Find a venue
- Publicise and promote the event
- Get your society to help out at the event
- Use the event to inspire others to become members of your society
- Find us somewhere to sleep for the night.
We organise the tour on a shoestring, and want to make it the most inspiring engaging event it can be. Therefore we focus our budget on getting fantastic speakers and touring the country. In order to visit as many universities as possible with this important event, we do not allocate any money for accommodation. We appreciate your efforts in housing us for the evening, and hope that in return we hope to provide the pinnacle of the year for your society.
SPW Unite to Fight AIDS Tour 2010
The Tour is currently in the planning stages for 2010. It will be starting in October and will be visiting more univeristies than ever. If you would like to be involved in hosting the event at your university please contact stopaids@spw.org.
Watch this space for more information!
