UN Youth Champion Monique Coleman Supports HIV Prevention in South Africa

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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — High School Musical star Monique Coleman is a new advocate for youth around the world. As the first-ever UN Youth Champion, the American actress is travelling the globe to celebrate the UN International Year of Youth and raise support for the Millennium Development Goals.

As part of her world tour, Ms. Coleman recently visited the loveLife Youth Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa – the country’s largest HIV prevention initiative for young people. UNFPA partners with loveLife to encourage adolescents to learn about HIV and safe sexual behaviour, access testing and other services, and serve as HIV advocates in their communities. An estimated 9 per cent of South African youth between the ages of 15 and 24 are living with HIV. The pandemic has had a profound effect on young people in the country, robbing them of their parents and friends and creating new hurdles on the path out of poverty.

Ms. Coleman, whose visit was hosted by the National Youth Development Agency, loveLife and UNFPA, showed her solidarity with young people in South Africa. After watching a lively dance performance, she got the chance to meet some of the volunteers who make up loveLife’s national youth volunteer service corps, known as ‘groundbreakers’. Working with more than 200 community-based organizations, 5,600 schools and 500 clinics across the country, loveLife directly reaches half a million youth each month and even more through media campaigns.

South Africa continues to be home to the largest population of people living with HIV in the world, and young generations have a pivotal role to play in changing this reality.

“South Africa shows great commitment to the challenges faced by young people by leading programmes such as loveLife’s youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services,” Ms Coleman said.

Ms. Coleman encouraged young people to “keep going and never stop” in the face of adversity, to lead by example and to work together with allies like loveLife, the National Youth Agency and UNFPA. Throughout her tour, the actress is promoting social media to connect youth in different parts of the world and encouraging young people to stand up and lead change.

“Ms. Coleman and the young groundbreakers at loveLife are perfect examples of how young people, and especially young women, can be agents of change in a country. When girls are in school and have access to development opportunities, they can avoid unwanted teenage pregnancies and the risks of contracting HIV. Only through ensuring their sexual and reproductive health and rights can we empower young people to effectively contribute to their communities and to nation building. There can be no programming and development without the partnership of our young people,” said Mark Schreiner, UNFPA Deputy Representative in South Africa.