[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm Mony Pen.
I'm 32 years old.
I live in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
And I have been activists for eight years.
I become the activist.
First, I'm a person living with HIV.
And now I'm peer educator to a new ed activist,
called Miss Prum Dalish.
My name is Dalish.
And I am 27 years old.
I'm working for the Cambodian Community of Women
Living with HIV.
And I have been living with HIV for 12 years.
The HIV prevalence in Cambodia right now is going down
and the number of [INAUDIBLE] HIV who are on the medication
is increasing.
But we are facing the second wave
amongst the most at-risk population, including
men who have sex with men, drug users, and sex worker.
This area is so very poor area in Phnom Penh, where
there are a lot sex workers who are also
HIV positive living here with very bad living conditions.
And also the environment, the sanitation also is not so good.
I brought Dalish to this area today
in order to introduce her to the woman support group here.
And also it's kind of an opportunity for her
as an activist to learn what is the living
condition of the women in the community,
so that she can learn more about the issue.
And then she can like build a closer relationship and also
confidence for the future.
Mony is very, very good leader, as I use to learn from her,
and she always guide me.
And she always tell me about the difficulty in this area.
We do not discriminate.
And they are sex worker, but also they are woman.
And they're also infected by HIV.
So we feel like we have the heart, the same feeling.
That's why we try to enroll them in our program.
And also, we talk about the human rights,
the women's rights, and how do to stand up,
and how to empower ourself to be like a speaker,
to be a leader in like even in your small group.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm Ricardo Barush.
I'm from Mexico.
I'm 27 years old.
And I'm working on different issues
of sexual protective health, particularly HIV prevention
among young people.
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
Today we had the walking to remember
people who have died of AIDS.
As a gay man, HIV is something that it's always
been close, very close to me, because I have many friends who
are living with HIV.
I have friends who have died.
In Mexico, five of every six people who are living with HIV
are men, which shows how men who have sex with men
are affected by the epidemic.
We're in Amberes Street.
This is where the gay area in Mexico City starts,
the Zona Rosa.
It's difficult to change behavior,
because a lot of times people who come here to Zona Rosa
do have the information, the knowledge, the condoms,
the tools, but there's something there that is not working.
So like we don't know exactly what it is.
But that's why we need to ensure that there's
like a comprehensive response to HIV.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
My name is Andrea Bergstrom.
I'm 26 and living in Stockholm, Sweden.
I am the international coordinator of Stockholm Pride.
It's a festival for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
and queer people.
And I'm an activist.
One of the persons who really inspires me as an activist
is Steve.
He has lived with HIV since 1987.
He's a friend.
Steve has a long career as an activist.
And you can really feel his commitment to the issues.
And also, you can feel the passion.
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
What I found so beautiful with your book inside
it is that you give a voice to people who otherwise would not
have been heard.
That's very nice to hear, because that was really
my intention when I did this book.
This is one of my favorite photos, wide open doors.
And I believe in open communication.
It's so important when you talk about HIV
that you are inclusive.
My voice as a young LGBT activists in Sweden,
I have been heard.
But when I look at my friends in some parts of the world,
I can see that their voice is not heard at all.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm working for the rights of LGBT people,
because I have a personal connection to the issues
and also because I think that LGBT rights are human rights.
And human rights is something I think
should apply for everyone in the world.
In the summer of 2009, I had the great experience
of receiving four LGBT activists from Uganda
that visited Stockholm Pride.
I'll call myself an activist because I
try to make lives of other gay people better.
When I first meeting [BEEP] I was amazed
by the braveness and the inspiration that he has in him
despite the homophobic society HE lives in.
When I see this movie, and especially this interview
with [BEEP] who is now a dear friend of mine,
I still cry to some parts, because this was
a really strong moment for me.
Homophobia is connected to HIV and AIDS, and by the fact
that you can't protect yourself if you are not
accepted within your society.
As an activist, some days I'm really happy
and some days I'm only angry.
I want to change things to do better.
And that's what keeps me going.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I am Mary-Jane Matsolo.
I am 29 years old.
I come from Cape Town in the Western Cape, South Africa.
I work for the Treatment Action Campaign.
I also work full Ground Up as a journalist.
And my job involves being first and foremost
an activist and secondly everything else.
Ground Up is an online media publication
with the sole purpose of reporting
on social issues that never get to make it on the mainstream
media.
What do we do at Ground Up is that we
give the voiceless a platform.
I got the opportunity to visit a township just outside Durban,
called kawMakhutha.
This township has one of the highest prevalence rate
of HIV and AIDS in the country.
Here, more than 40% of people between the ages
of 15 to 49 years old are infected with HIV.
We are going to meet a group of women
that come from the Treatment Action Campaign.
And we're going to find out about the remarkable work
that they are doing in trying to fight against the HIV and AIDS
scourge.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Is it a difficult thing to grow up
as a teenage girl in this area?
Yeah.
Why do you say that?
There's a lot of pressure in everything,
like the person you are.
Lot of them don't have self-esteem.
A major contribution factor to the high HIV prevalence rate
right here is the fact that the young girls right here
don't have enough self-confidence
to make their own decisions.
And also, the young men are not well-educated around
the importance of safe sex.
And that puts them in a vulnerable stage
to teenage pregnancies and being infected with HIV.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm Christopher Barnhill.
I'm 25 years old, live in Washington DC.
And I support young people in the fight against HIV and AIDS
by working with Metro Teen AIDS.
I was born with HIV.
And when I really realized that I'm infected with HIV,
it can be a little depressing.
You know, I do think about, OK, like what will my fate will be.
I do think about, oh, my god, not another pill.
I do think about, oh, my god, not another illness.
But although I think about those days,
it does not allow me to take away from what
I believe that I'm here for.
And it doesn't allow me to stop thinking about like life,
you know.
The AIDS epidemic in Washington DC, as you know,
we are number one with the highest
rated city in the country.
And they compare our rates to some South African nations,
which is what is devastating to hear that.
But it's also influences the work
that I do at Metro Teen AIDS and the work
that many other people do in the city.
So right now in Anacostia neighborhood in Washington DC.
This is Ward 8.
It's considered one of the highest rated wards in DC
for HIV and AIDS.
The highest wards in DC are wards 5 through 8.
Why is it so?
It's so because of many different reasons,
like unemployment rates, poverty,
failing education system.
I think the most important would be
just like educate, educating our young people,
and being of service to them.
That's our mission is to be of service in regards
to HIV and reproductive health.
That's our mission.
And our goal to is to support young people, whether they are
infected with HIV or affected.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Today I bring Dalish to visit the drug user
in the drop in center.
So I think it's very important to learn about there
situation as the drug user.
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
After we spent three hours talking to them, and then
we learned a lot from them.
And then we face like the same problem, discrimination.
So we shared the experience, and we found out
we have a similar experience.
This is the first time for me.
And today I have been with a lot of people
who use the drug and some people here also
the people living with HIV.
I would like to change the relationship between the man
and the woman in this country, because sometime, you know,
I can see the gap between the power.
Men at this level.
And woman at this level.
That's why like a woman, you know,
they still become poorer and poorer.
Here, is the income generation activity
for woman living with HIV.
And I think it's very important, because we
can bring the women together.
It is very important to have a job for women living with HIV.
Because if they go to work outside,
they cannot find a job.
If they knew their HIV status, then they
might discriminate them.
So they are here to like be as a family.
I want to empower women living with HIV
can be mentally all right.
And I can tell them to speak up and to stand up.
For the future, I would like to see a man and woman,
they are looking together with compassion, with heart,
with solidarity, and equal power.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Right now, we're going to have about training
for young activists who are working
on sexual and reproductive health issues.
And I'm going to be talking about youth participation
on the HIV movement in Mexico and what kinds of things
can be done.
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
I think it's important to renew HIV activism in Mexico,
because we also need new strategies, new way of thinking
about how to address the epidemic nowadays.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is a National Institute of Public Health, one
of the main research institutions in this country
on health issues.
And this is where I'm doing my masters on public health.
I'm an activist, but I also think
it's important to have good theoretical basis in order
to improve the things that we do also out there.
So that's why I decided to do a master's
in public health, because then I could combine research
and action, which I think it's something that we really
need in Mexico.
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
Julio Frenk who was the founder of this institute,
he's a great role model for me, because he did a lot of things
to improve sexual and reproductive health in Mexico
when he was the Minister of Health.
One of the great accomplishments of AIDS
was it led to the largest mobilization of public opinion
and civil society around the health issue
in human history, and probably around almost any issue.
AIDS, the fight against AIDS became a social movement.
And that movement is there is there to build on.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I think nowadays there should be a lot of attention
on most at-rick groups, for example,
men who have sex with men, drug users, sex
workers, because sometimes we are left out
from the main strategies on HIV prevention.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
These young men have just explained to me
the difficulties that they have around accessing condoms.
And that is one of the most contributing
factors to the high rate of HIV and AIDS in this area.
So these young men are unemployed.
They've got nothing to do.
They make a living through washing cars
every now and again.
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
I feel saddened by the fact that we
have in one, beautiful country, South Africa, that we have
two different types of world.
We have the world where everybody has it all.
They can access everything.
And then there's the world that is stricken by poverty.
The youth feel that the future is looking very bleak.
These are the type of stories that Ground Up is always
looking for, the social justice stories,
the stories that never get to see the light of day
in the mainstream media.
The experience from kawMakhutha.
Has shown me that there is definitely
a strong need for activism, because through activism we
can ensure that these people get the necessary services
that they are entitled to.
Through activism we can ensure that their right to health
and human dignity is fulfilled.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So my hero is Phill Wilson of the Black AIDS Institute.
And it's because I just believe in the work that he does.
And I see the work he does.
And it's like it is impacting not just nationally,
but internationally.
And that's a powerful influence to have.
I'm really excited to be here.
And I'm thrilled to be able to see
what goes on at Metro Teens.
At this point, when I think about my life,
and I was infected when I was 24 years old.
And I'm now 56.
So I've been infected for a very long period of time.
So to have a role model like Phill of the Black AIDS
Institute is it just reminds me--
it's kind of like looking at myself into the future.
And it's like, wow, would that be me?
Being able to speak on his level and to do the amazing work
that he does, it just allows me to work for something.
One of the reasons why I'm so thrilled
about every time I have an encounter with someone that's
young in the fight is kind of a belief
that, in fact, we can end the AIDS epidemic,
you know, particularly given the disproportionate impact
and the burden that young people carry around
the HIV/AIDS epidemic today, and particularly now
young, black people.
Pretty much right now we're getting
ready to do some street outreach.
Street outreach is very important to the work
that we do.
This is how we connect to the community.
And this is how we just pretty much spread
the message of HIV testing.
How old are you?
I'm 18 years old.
I used to go to school across the street, Haynes Middle
School.
And before I went there I didn't know anything regarding
sexual health, period.
But after I went there, Metro Teen AIDS
is like almost across the street from it.
I went down there and I learned about how much I didn't know.
And ever since then, it's been my mission to empower people
to know the things.
Metro Teen AIDS is a nonprofit about stopping
the spread HIV and AIDS throughout Washington DC.
So we do things like HIV 101s, STI 101s,
pass out free condoms, you know, things like that.
Chris is definitely a role model for me.
One thing about Chris, he's always,
always poised in situations, He's very outgoing.
But when it's time to get serious,
he keeps his composure very well.
And I really admire that about him.
It's very important to reach out to young people.
It's probably like one of the most important things you do.
Young people are the future.
And we've got to invest into the future.
We really have to invest into their lives.
Young people have the power to change the world.
[MUSIC PLAYING]