FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: |
CONTACT: |
Bill Barker (202) 419-3420 |
February 13, 2006 |
|
|
Young People to Mobilize Against Failed Abstinence-Only Programs at Home and Abroad
Advocates for Youth Launches New Campaigns to Bring Youth Voice to Debate
WASHINGTON, DC (February 13, 2006) At a time when the President’s FY2007 budget requests significant increases for failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs at home and abroad, Advocates for Youth is launching two new campaigns to mobilize young people across the country in opposition to these ineffective and dangerous programs that censor information about condoms.
The Rights.Respect.Responsibility.® Keep It REAL campaign and the Rights.Respect.Responsibility.® Fix the Gap campaign both build upon Advocates’ Youth Activist Network (YAN), a group composed of more than 15,000 youth from communities across the country. These young people work together to fight for accurate sexual health information and services so that they can prevent unintended pregnancy and STDs, including HIV.
"Advocates works with over 15,000 youth from across the country,” said Caeden Dempsey, Program Manager for the Youth Activist Network at Advocates for Youth. “These youth asked for a way to fight back against programs that censor health information for young people, and Advocates is happy to respond with these campaigns.”
The Keep It REAL campaign empowers youth to become part of the policy process by demanding honest and accurate information about sexual and reproductive health and supporting the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act. The REAL Act, introduced by Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), would provide federal money to support responsible sex education in schools – science-based, medically accurate, and age appropriate information about both abstinence and contraception.
"Abstinence is, of course, the only 100 percent effective prevention for all STDs, but since 70 percent of young people have had sex by the age of 18, we need more than the ‘Just Say No’ message,” said Liz Hanson, a youth activist and coordinator for the Keep It REAL campaign. “We need to let Congress know that young people want information so that we can make informed decisions for ourselves. The REAL Act is a critical step to getting the comprehensive sex education youth want and need.”
The Fix the Gap campaign takes aim at the exportation of abstinence-only programs by the U.S. to other countries around the world, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa.
A recent Baltimore Sun story disclosed the efforts to shift even more dollars into these abstinence-only programs while cutting back on support for condoms. Duff Gillespie, who headed AIDS programs at USAID until 2002, was quoted saying this policy was “outrageous and stupid… [and] from a public health policy point of view it’s irresponsible.”
"I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Gillespie’s sentiments,” said Fix the Gap campaign coordinator Charis Goff, age 21. “Information is power, and education builds better decisions. This campaign is our chance to let the politicians know how we feel.”
The Fix the Gap campaign will mobilize activists working to remove the restriction that one-third of prevention funds allocated under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) be spent on ineffective and medically unethical abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.
Advocates for Youth has created materials to assist young people in organizing around the campaigns. In addition to educational materials such as fact sheets, each campaign has a toolkit that provides useful tips and guidance for grassroots organizing. The full documents are available online at www.advocatesforyouth.org.
###
Advocates for Youth is a national, nonprofit organization that creates programs and supports policies that help young people make safe, responsible decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.
RETURN TO INDEX OF PRESS RELEASES >>
|
Send this page to a friend