What is NYHAAD?
National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day (NYHAAD), annually on April 10th, is a day to educate the public about the impact of HIV and AIDS on young people. The day also highlights the HIV prevention, treatment, and care campaigns of young people in the U.S. Check out our social media toolkit to participate
From April 3-10th, we’re coordinating a series of events & activities in the lead-up to National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day (#NYHAAD).
Join us LIVE on Youtube on Monday, April 10th for the finale event!
- In addition, join us and thousands of accounts across the country in posting online using #NYHAAD. We encourage you to (1) use the NYHAAD toolkit here for inspiration, (2) share the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Action link here, and/or (3) encourage folks to sign up for our Medical Mentorship Toolkit by sharing this link on social media. Remember to use #NYHAAD in your posts, no matter what social media network you choose.
MONDAY, APRIL 3rd
Stay tuned to our Instagram account @advocatesforyouth to learn more about the NYHAAD campaign, our values, and our demands. In addition, throughout the week on the @MyStoryOutLoud Instagram account, we’ll be highlighting several members of the NYHAAD Collective—a bold group of young people leading HIV prevention, treatment, and care campaigns in their communities.
TUESDAY: Repeal HIV Discrimination Act Teaser
Check out our TikTok account @advocatesforyouth, where we’ll post a video from Youma Diabira (she/her) on the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act. Youma is a NYHAAD Ambassador, member of communiTEA, and youth activist dedicated to amplifying the voices of young Black women and girls living with and impacted by HIV. She’s a current student at Xavier University, an HBCU in Louisiana, and also serves as a Sexual Assault Peer Health educator. Furthermore, Youma is a Reproductive Justice Fellow with In Our Own Voice.
WEDNESDAY – REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act
Join us for a day of action urging Congress to pass the Repeal HIV Discrimination Act. You can send a letter to your members of Congress here, and share the action online.
FRIDAY – 9:00pm EST Film Screening & Youth Panel w/ BLACK, GAY, stuck at home
Join us for a film screening and youth panel in partnership with BLACK, GAY, stuck at home (bgsah). bgsah is a project created by Michael Ward (he/him, @michaelxward) and Joshua Henry Jenkins (he/him, @joshjenks). As the world was asked to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic, they recognized that a need for affinity and community remains. Their effort to both gather folks together and to also center Black queer film. Head to http://www.bgsah.com/ for key updates about the feature film and panel featuring two NYHAAD Ambassadors.
MONDAY, APRIL 10th – Join us online using #NYHAAD
April 10th is National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day! Join us and thousands of accounts across the country in posting online using #NYHAAD. We encourage you to (1) use the NYHAAD toolkit here for inspiration, (2) share the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Action link here, and/or (3) encourage folks to sign up for our Medical Mentorship Toolkit by sharing this link on social media. Remember to use #NYHAAD in your posts, no matter what social media network you choose.
Then join us LIVE on Youtube on Monday, April 10th for the finale event! Our youth activists will be speaking with White House and Congressional staff about how to prioritize young people living with HIV in federal HIV & AIDS policy.
We hope you can join us for all or some of these events and activities!
Why is NYHAAD important?
Today’s young people are the first generation who have never known a world without HIV and AIDS. The CDC reports that in 2020, youth aged 13 to 24 made up 21% of the new HIV diagnoses in the United States. Young people living with HIV are the least likely of any age group to be retained in care and have a suppressed viral load. Addressing the impact of HIV on young people requires they have access to affirming, culturally-competent, and medically accurate resources and tools.
What is the NYHAAD Collective?
The National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day (NYHAAD) Collective is comprised of youth activists leading HIV prevention, treatment, and care campaigns in their communities. Their campaigns highlight the challenges faced by young people living with and impacted by HIV, offer insight on how they combat stigma and discrimination on local, state, and federal levels, and enhance the awareness among physicians, policymakers, and youth-serving organization staff, etc. about the existing disparities.
What are the campaign demands?
➤ Increasing empathy and reducing stigma about HIV and its impact on young people on campus and in communities; ➤ Affirming policies around HIV care, treatment, and prevention on campus and in communities; ➤ Decriminalizing HIV; ➤ Accessing HIV services, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), on-campus and in communities without parental consent; ➤ Updating sex education curricula, which includes medically accurate information about HIV.