Youth Coalition is an international organization of young people (ages 15-29 years) committed to promoting adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive rights at the national, regional and international levels. We are students, researchers, lawyers, health care professionals, educators, development workers, and most importantly, we are all dedicated activists.

INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE, Mexico City—Purnima Mane, Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and Gill Greer, Director-General of IPPF, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, in collaboration with Young Positives and the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, today launched Make it Matter, a guide to help prevent HIV among girls and young women.

The National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA) is reporting an increase in the number of adolescent female drug abusers. A National School Survey, which was conducted in 2006 among students in grades eight, 10 and 11, found that the gap between the number of adolescent male and female drug abusers was narrowing.

The Dominican Republic Senate and the Chamber of Deputies have unanimously approved a resolution to hold a joint meeting of senators and deputies at the Assembly Hall, to formally launch a campaign under the heading “16 Days of Action Against Gender Violence”.

To reverse the global spread of HIV/AIDS, we must break the chains of poverty and gender inequality that help the disease to spread. All over the world, greater efforts are required to address the concrete needs of women and girls and to increase the roles and responsibilities of boys and men. It is critical at this point in the global pandemic that efforts focus simultaneously on individual behaviour change and on wider social, cultural and economic change. Realistic strategies must be found that address the triple challenge of poverty, gender inequality and HIV/AIDS.