Move to Stop AIDS Dance-a-Thon a Success!

Youth from around the state danced the night away at Plan USA's 5th annual Move to Stop AIDS Dance-a-Thon!

We were thrilled to raise $5,500 for Plan's HIV/AIDS programs in Zimbabwe, thanks to the hard work of YUGA youth, raffle prize money, and a generous donor who agreed to match everything raised at the Dance-a-Thon!

Check out pictures pictures from the Dance-a-Thon taken by YUGA member Rachel from Cranston East High School. Thanks to everyone who came out to a great night!



Two bands from Cranston East High School performed a song for the Dance-a-Thon.



Everyone at the Dance-a-Thon enjoyed music from DJ Tatu!

The finished pieces! Dance-a-Thon attendees helped paint four canvases to
reflect their feelings about AIDS in different communities of the world.

Mayor Cicilline came to our Dance-a-Thon! He had great things to say about YUGA, and was excited to receive a plaque of thanks from YUGA members.

Pictured above: Clare, Arisa, Livia, Angie, and Carissa.

Representatives from Edesia hosted a table at the Dance-a-Thon. Edesia is a global nonprofit that treats malnutrition and extreme hunger, located right here in Providence! To learn more, visit http://www.edesiaglobal.com/.



Dancers from PAIS performed a traditional bellydance!



PAIS dancers perform a dance they choreographed themselves!



Above, Linda and Daniel- mother and son- do a capoeira demonstration.



Emily and AliceMae had a great time at the Dance-a-Thon!



To host a Dance-a-Thon at your school or community center, contact yuga@planusa.org!

Landmark Legislation to Prevent Child Marriage is On the Move!

On December 1^st, the US Senate unanimously passed the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act- a bill to protect girls in developing countries from early marriages. Girls as young as twelve can be married in many countries, which puts them at a great disadvantage for their health, education, and well-being.

“Tens of millions of women and girls around the world have lost their dignity, independence and lives due to child marriage,” said Senator Durbin, who first introduced the bill. “Child marriage denies these women and girls of an education, economic independence and is the root cause of many of the world’s most pressing development issues – HIV/AIDS, child mortality, and abject poverty. This bill is a powerful statement of our priorities as a nation and something that will change the lives of millions in some of the world’s forgotten places.”

The legislation will require the U.S. government to develop a comprehensive strategy to prevent child marriage, with the goal of eliminating the practice worldwide. The bill also seeks to promote the educational, health, economic, social, and legal empowerment of women and girls, and ensure that child marriage is globally recognized as a human rights violation.

UNICEF estimates that 60 million girls in developing countries now aged 20-24 were married before the age of 18. If current trends continue, this number will increase by 100 million over the next decade. This past summer, YUGA members learned about child marriage at YUGA Leadership Camp and several YUGA youth delivered 11,500 letters signed by our supporters to Congress. Now that the bill is on the brink of becoming law, we need even more support to ensure that it gets passed!

Urge your Representatives to approve the legislation. Send pictures, make a phone call, or find other creative ways to let your Representatives know that the bill should be passed. Make sure that everyone you know understands the importance of this bill, and that they should urge their Representatives to pass the bill, too! To find out who your state’s representative is, visit https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml.

Click here for more information about Plan’s work and the Preventing Child Marriage Act.

You may also want to read an Op-Ed in the Washington Post from Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, and Desmond Tutu, archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, about child marriage.

What in the World are YOU doing on World AIDS Day?

written by Katie Appel, DC Intern

On this December 1^st, youth all over the world will unite to show support for the global battle against HIV/AIDS. The World AIDS Campaign’s website hosts an international calendar of World AIDS Day (WAD) events, and here is a sampling of ways young people across the globe will be acting out against AIDS:

• Members of the South Asia Regional Youth Network will change 10,000 Facebook profiles to support WAD 2010 in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Iran.
• In Nairobi, Kenya, youth volunteers who teach HIV/AIDS prevention through the performing arts will host a Youth Seminar for other teens.
• Students in Bangkok will sell baked goods and merchandise and the profits will benefit a local home for disabled HIV positive children.
• In Mexico City, university students will gather to spread awareness of HIV/AIDS transmission and testing.
• Students in Canada will present the “Viral Monologues,” stories performed by youth and written by those infected with HIV/AIDS.
• Lastly, students in Providence, RI will host the YUGA Move to Stop AIDS Dance-a-thon!

So now that you know a little about what youth all over the world are doing on World AIDS Day, what will you do? Hang a poster in your school or community to spread awareness. Announce World AIDS Day through your personal social networking sites. Research how the spread of HIV/AIDS has impacted the population of one specific country. Sign up to volunteer at a local HIV/AIDS clinic or resource center. Make and pass out red ribbons to family and friends. Attend a local World AIDS Day event. Check out a documentary on HIV/AIDS from your local video store. Wear red! And don’t forget to get your friends involved because the more people that speak out against HIV/AIDS, the louder the voice will be!

Hopefully with worldwide participation and cooperation, we will one day see the end of this terrible epidemic. Until then, thank you for participating in World AIDS Day 2010, and for everything else you do to raise awareness for global issues the other 364 days of the year!

To check out the World AIDS Campaign’s international calendar visit: http://www.worldaidscampaign.org/en/World-AIDS-Day/WAD-2010-Events-Calendar

To find an HIV/AIDS documentary title, visit http://www.planusa.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/86637#AIDS

To learn more about the YUGA Move to Stop AIDS Dance-a-thon visit: http://www.planusa.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/255078

YUGA's Themes of the Month 2010-2011

Need some ideas to keep your YUGA Chapter moving? Wondering what issues your YUGA chapter should be focusing on throughout the year? Below is a list of themes that we'll be writing about each month, centered around a national or international day of action. These themes address all five of YUGA's current campaigns: HIV/AIDS, Child Exploitation, Climate Change, Global Poverty, and Because I am a Girl. The monthly newsletter will discuss each issue in detail and is packed with information, resources, and ideas to help your YUGA chapter take action!

December 2010- HIV/ AIDS

December 1: World AIDS Day

January 2011- Children in Conflict Zones

January 1: World Day of Peace

February 2011- The President’s Take on YUGA Issues
February 18: President’s Day

March 2011- Walk for Wells/ Access to Clean Water and Sanitation/ Because I Am a Girl

March 8: International Women’s Day

March 22: World Day for Water

April 2011- Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability

April 22: Earth Day

May 2011- Global Poverty and Fair Trade

2nd Saturday of May - World Fair Trade Day

June 2011- Child Labor and Exploitation

June 12 - World Day Against Child Labor

Make sure that you're receiving the E-newsletter by signing up on Plan USA's homepage, or send Corrie an email to be added to the list.

Back to School with YUGA!

What does "Back to School" mean to you? ... Back to homework? ... Practice for sports teams? Hopefully, back to school means back to YUGA, too!

Many of our YUGA Chapters across the country are dusting off their toolkits and getting ready for another year of projects, events, fundraisers, and workshops about global issues. As voted upon at YUGA Camp, our current campaigns are Global Poverty, Climate Change, Child Exploitation, HIV/AIDS, and Because I Am a Girl. Visit the YUGA Website to download all of our toolkits and get ideas for your next YUGA meeting here!

YUGA at Cranston East High School didn't waste a moment before getting their chapter moving. Their first meeting started with an icebreaker about AIDS, followed by a discussion about the issues they wanted to address throughout the year.

Cranston East also participated in Plan UK's A Hand in my Future campaign, collecting pictures of hands with a message about the importance of youth in decision-making. Says 16-year-old Colette from the UK, "A Hand in My Future is about reminding decision-makers that children and young people have the right and the ability to make a difference to the significant development issues that will affect the next generation’s future.” View a selection of the hands they collected, and visit their website to read more about their campaign!

Their YUGA meeting ended with a plan to collect cans at their school's football game. "Not only our we helping the environment," says Luis, "but we're also able raise money by personally bringing the cans to the recycling plant." A great way to fund raise, raise awareness of environmental sustainability, and have a great time, too!

Above, Cranston East YUGA members promoting recycling at the football game!

For ideas or help with your YUGA meetings, contact Corrie at corrie.bonham@planusa.org- and come to the next YUGA New England meeting on October 17! 11:30-1:30 at the Plan USA Office, 155 Plan Way, Warwick RI 02886. We'll be discussing plans for the year, activities for your YUGA chapter, and get updates about what's been going on at YUGA Centeral!

United Nations International Year of Youth Launch Event

Are Youth Undervalued?
Written By: Luis, Cranston RI


Youth everywhere are severely undervalued. Most people never see the value in young people. They hold certain perceptions about children and teens that are just not true. They just write us off as lazy and uninformed. However, in many cases it is quite the contrary. There are young people everywhere working hard to try to change local and global issues. In fact, I myself am of these young people. I am part of a youth group aimed at stopping many global issues, such as Gender Inequality, Global Warming, Poverty, and HIV/AIDS. The youth group I am part of is called Youth United for Global Action and Awareness, or simply Yuga.

This past August, Yuga sponsored a trip to New York City to give youth the opportunity to speak at both the United Nations and an evening reception, which I was lucky enough to be part of. Two other Yuga members, Heather and Claire, also came on the trip as well. The purpose of the trip was to speak at the launch of the International Year of Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding, which is the dedication of a whole year by the United Nations:

“[to] harness the energy, imagination and initiative of the world’s youth in overcoming the challenges facing humankind, from enhancing peace to boosting economic development.”

However, Yuga was not embarking on this trip by itself. We had tremendous support from Plan, the charity organization that sponsors and directs Yuga. Plan is a multi-national charity that works in over 40 countries around the world promoting child rights and trying to eradicate poverty through many different approaches. Since Plan is an international organization, youth from the UK also joined our trip as well. The youth from the UK were Katie and Emily, and yes they did have amazing British accents.

Katie was part of Plan UK’s YAP, or Youth Advisory Panel, which is similar to Yuga in the United States, while Emily was the UK winner of Shoot Nations, a London-based international youth photography competition. Shoot Nations was also planning to give a presentation at the UN, with the 2010 winners of their photo competition being the focus of their presentation. The trip was a sort of collaboration between Yuga, YAP and Shoot Nations, with amazing support and guidance from Plan, of course.

The entire trip was scheduled during the second week of August, as this was the week of both the launch of the International Year of Youth, as well as the Plan evening reception. Heather, Claire, Emily, Katie and myself, alongside with Corrie and Jo, our lovely chaperones, all made it to New York City two days before we were to give our joint presentation at the United Nations.

For the few days that we were in New York, we had the chance to visit the Boys and Girls Club in Manhattan, which acts almost like a second home to the many kids and teens who attend;

This picture, taken at the Boys and Girls Club of Manhattan, shows us giving “our hands” to the A Hand In Our Future Campaign, which is a campaign being run by Plan UK to remind world leaders that their decisions will affect the future of our generation. To learn more about it, go to http://www.plan-uk.org/newsroom/ahandinmyfuture/

The Apollo, where we took part in the famed Amateur Night, which has a format similar to American Idol;

Times Square, a must for any tourist in New York;

And of course the UN, which is such an important and influential governing body for the whole world! We really saw so much that New York had to offer.

However, the trip was not meant for just vacation. There was work to be done too. The speech that we were to present at the U.N. had to be written and completed and we only had a few days to do so! From the beginning of the trip we all began to brainstorm the general idea that we wanted to convey through our speech. We all agreed to three main talking points: diversity and how it makes us more open-minded, technology and its effect on global communication, and the initiative of our generation to try to solve global issues.

Specifically, my portion of the speech focused on the increasing diversity that we all live in. I’m proud to say that I am the son of immigrants and so are many of my friends and peers. I enjoy the fact that there are people from all over the world that go to my school. I’ve learned so much about so many different cultures just through the people that live in my town. Things that previous generations would have scoffed at our now considered cultural norms. Our generation is just so much more open-minded. This new found tolerance is not just because of the wide range of people that we all live amongst, but also because of another huge factor in all of our lives: the internet, which was the focus of another part of our speech.

The day after we wrote our speeches, was the day we were presenting it at the United Nations! Our speech was to be part of a larger event, the launching of the International Year of Youth, which is a whole year being dedicated by the United Nations General Assembly to youth everywhere. Before we gave our own speech there were appearances various prime ministers and Secretary General Ban Ki- Moon. Obviously, I was nervous. I was going to share the spotlight with actual world leaders!

When the presenter called our group’s name, I was momentarily stunned. It was at that moment that I came to fully realize what I was about to do. I was going to give a speech at the United Nations. I would have never imagined that in my entire life that I would ever been given the chance to do such a thing. It was such a great and humbling feeling. Heather was going to give the introduction of our speech, but I was next. I heard Heather give me my cue, and then I walked up to the podium….

Yuga, YAP’s and Shoot Nation’s joint presentation at the United Nations

It is such an unbelievably amazing feeling voicing your opinion on the world stage, especially as a teen. Representing youth from all around the world, I felt empowered, knowing that my voice finally counted for something. World leaders listened to what I had to say. If some youth in this world managed to get politicians, prime ministers and a secretary general to listen to them, I think there can be hope for youth everywhere. Give us some choices, and I’m sure you’ll see that young people are much more valuable than what you think.