Schoolgirls in urban Cameroon react to a performance by peer youth educators. Educational and participatory entertainment performances are just part of PSI's HIV/AIDS prevention programs.

Africa Alive! and Youth AIDS have joined forces to significantly expand their respective programs that empower young people in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Africa Alive!Youth AIDS is a cooperative effort between The Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP) and Population Services International (PSI) and Global Justice. Africa Alive! is a network of African youth organizations that promotes AIDS prevention and safe sexual behavior through entertainment. Africa Alive! is supported by JHU/CCP, a pioneer in the field of health communication with more than 20 years experience in developing and managing over 300 country-based projects and contracts. Building upon PSI's programs in over 50 countries, YouthAIDS is an initiative dedicated to protecting the world's youth from HIV/AIDS by providing at-risk youth with the information, skills, and HIV/AIDS prevention products and services that they need to practice healthier behaviours. Global Justice (GJ) and Youth Against AIDS (YAA) have partnered to put a spotlight on the crisis of AIDS facing youth in Africa. The partnership will highlight the work of African youth Activists while providing them with direct capacity-building support through the Adopt-A-Project Campaign.

Africa Alive!Youth AIDS have also teamed with Artists Against AIDS Worldwide (AAAW), which seeks to focus attention on the global epidemic that kills 5,000 Africans each day. Artists involved in AAAW include Bono, Britney Spears, Destiny's Child and others who recently gathered in New York City to re-record Marvin Gaye's classic "What's Going On" as a call to action to stop the spread of AIDS in Africa. Africa Alive!Youth AIDS has been chosen as one of the principal recipients of funds raised through the sale of "What's Going On." To find out the latest on Artists Against AIDS Worldwide go to www.aaaw.org.

Popular music group "Bishop" having a good time before their performance at the Africa Alive! AIDS Youth rally in Livingstone, Zambia.

Africa Alive! is a multi-nation initiative to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS among African youth through synergistic partnerships. The cornerstone of this regional project is a high-profile media strategy that involves popular role models, uses "enter-educate" approaches including local, national and concert events, and involves youth in the design and implementation of programs. The project has five key components: communication, advocacy, fundraising, networking, and capacity building. Africa Alive! initiatives are built on best practices learned from JHU/CCP projects in 50 countries. Africa Alive! is managed through the Africa Alive! regional office based in Durban, South Africa. Please check out www.africaalive.org and www.jhuccp.org for more information.

YouthAIDS HIV/AIDS prevention programs in over 50 countries are able to reach more than 600 million young people through creative promotion of abstinence, decreased sexual activity and safer sex. Using a technique called social marketing, YouthAIDS harnesses modern marketing techniques, vast distribution channels, media, music, sport and celebrity endorsements to raise awareness and promote healthy lifestyles. YouthAIDS uses existing health distribution networks to deliver products such as condoms for only pennies a day; concurrently, innovative communications campaigns motivate youth to practice healthier behaviours. Where public health resources are scarce, PSI and YouthAIDS fill a critical gap in HIV/AIDS prevention. You can learn more at www.psi.org.

Global Justice works through its primary project the Student Global AIDS Campaign to mobilize youth and students in the US, Africa, and around the world to advocate for increased government, private sector, and civil society leadership in the fight against AIDS. The campaign pushes for vastly increased AIDS spending; total bilateral and multilateral debt cancellation; and guaranteed access to treatment and care, including ARV's. Global Justice also serves as the Secretariat of the Global Youth AIDS Advocacy Network, formed during the UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS. Youth Against AIDS (YAA) is a youth-led network in over 30 African countries with a mission of creating an international framework of support for young AIDS activists by highlighting their lives, work, successes and challenges internationally. YAA acts as a mouthpiece for youth-focused organizations with little international visibility, and mobilizes direct support to strengthen their response to HIV/AIDS. For more information please see www.fightglobalaids.org and www.yAIDS.org.

For more information on the Africa Alive!Youth Aids initiative please contact Jennifer Delaney or Kate Roberts.