UNAIDS Asia-Pacific 
To celebrate International Youth Day on 12 August, UNAIDS talked to Thaw Zin Aye, a youth leader from Myanmar who is based in Bangkok. Thaw works with Youth LEAD, a network in Asia and the Pacific that works on human rights issues and advocates for the rights and needs of young key populations.
It’s International Youth Day on 12 August so UNAIDS sat down with Niluka Perera from Kandy, Sri Lanka. He is working in Bangkok, Thailand, as the project officer for Youth Voices Count, which is the first and only network of young men, who have sex with men and transgender people in Asia and the Pacific. Read More
The Myanmar Health Forum, which took place this week in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar ended with the adoption of a communiqué endorsing the goal of establishing universal health coverage (UHC) in Myanmar by 2030. The meeting was organized by Myanmar’s Ministry of Health and attended by 700 senior representatives from the Myanmar government, civil society, international development partners, academics, the private sector and health professionals. The communiqué outlined the requirements and commitments needed to achieve UHC.
Liu Jiulong is the first person in China to complete an AIDS RIDE. This fundraiser and HIV awareness raising bicycling event has been popular in other countries like the USA for many years. However, in China fear of stigma and discrimination have kept many people living with HIV from taking part in public events.
“Cycling promotes a healthy lifestyle and the AIDS RIDE is a good way to promote correct HIV prevention knowledge to the general public,” said Liu Jiulong.
His mission was to use the challenge to eliminate ignorance, misunderstanding, fear and discrimination for people living with HIV. His odyssey began 4 May in Nanchang city, his hometown. He rode his bike for 3000 km, cycling through 27 cities. 43 days later he completed his journey triumphantly in Beijing. Liu Jiulong said he carried out 30 advocacy activities during his trip, reaching 16 million people online.
HIV/AIDS programme managers and community groups join hands to strengthen
and expand HIV testing
MANILA, 02 July 2015 — Ten national HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infection (STI) programmes, civil society and development partners in the Western Pacific Region have joined forces to ensure that everyone living with HIV knows their status and is able to access HIV treatment. This push for expanded HIV testing coverage came during a recent two-day meeting organized by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office for the Western Pacific and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Manila, the Philippines.
Photograph caption: From left to right, Manik Prabhu, Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, Elvis Joseph, Coach and Babu Seenappa in Geneva, Switzerland on 30 June 2015.
Two exceptional teenagers from Karnataka, India have participated in the 2015 International Children’s Games in Alkmaar, Netherlands. Babu Seenappa and Manik Prabhu were born with HIV. They overcame difficult childhoods to rise to the pinnacle of children’s athletics and participate in the prestigious Games accredited by the International Olympic Committee.
It’s 9pm and the night is just getting going in one popular entertainment establishment in Phnom Penh city. The place which preferred not be identified provides a mix of services in its multi-story building: diners enjoy a restaurant on the ground floor, the rooms in the middle level vibrate with popular songs and on the top floor is the hotel. However in one corner next to several other karaoke rooms, a serious conversation is taking place. It seems out of context amid the high pitched laughter, strobe lights, brightly dressed women and loud male customers. Five entertainment workers are sitting on a sofa talking about why they don’t get tested for HIV.
One woman said, “I don’t know where to go.”
A co-worker agreed and added, “I dare not go. I am too afraid.”
Their interviewer is 22-year-old Rath Chan Molika. She recently quit her job as an entertainment worker and is now an outreach worker and lay counsellor with the SMARTgirl programme. She explained further why the women working in the karaoke parlour feared public health clinics, “First of all it’s because they’re scared to go alone. Secondly, they’re afraid of the needle and blood.” Read More
The Director of UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific, Steve Kraus has started a three-day mission to Lao PDR which aims to strengthen the country’s efforts in accelerating its response to HIV. Last month Lao PDR was one of 58 countries and territories in Asia and the Pacific to endorse the Report of the Asia-Pacific Intergovernmental Meeting on HIV and AIDS, along with the Regional framework for action on HIV and AIDS beyond 2015 at the 71st session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand.
UNAIDS Asia-Pacific 