9th ICAAP BYF Youth Coordinator:
RACHEL ARINII (Indonesia)
Independent Youth Alliance. Rachel has been working
on HIV & AIDS since 2004. She is a youth representative for the
Indonesian Red Cross on HIV & AIDS. In 2007, she joined the
Young Advocate network of the International Women's Health
Coalition (IWHC) and became a member of the Youth Advisory Panel of
the United Nationa Population Fund (UNFPA) of Indonesia. In 2008,
she established the Independent Youth Alliance, a national youth
network in her country, which aims to gather and unite young people
from various background in Indonesia to boost their roles as
advocates and young leaders. She is currently working as the
Officer of the Global Alliance on AIDS for the International
Federation on Red Cross and Red Crescent in Indonesia.
9th ICAAP BYF Youth Coordinator:
AJAY KUMAR UPRETY (Nepal)
GYCA
South Asia Coordinator. Ajay is a youth advocate from
Nepal, currently serving as South Asian Regional Focal Point for
the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS, a youth-led global network
of over 5,000 young leaders working in response to HIV and AIDS in
150 countries worldwide. Ajay graduated from Tribhuvan University
with Microbiology and currently doing Masters in University of
Mysore, India. Ajay involved with a youth organization named Youth
Initiative and continuously working on different youth issues since
2004. He coordinated Youth Initiative’s programs on HIV & AIDS
and sexual, reproductive health of young people in name ‘Between
Us’. He had designed and facilitated ‘Workshop on-HIV & AIDS: A
Social Issue”, which help to change the mind set of young people
towards HIV & AIDS, sexual minorities and People living with
HIV. As a writer of youth magazine he had done research on
different topics of youth interest especially on youth &
student politics and health. He is involving as Leadership Trainer
in different youth and student groups like Rotaract & Red Cross
Circle. He participated in number of International programs in
South Asian region. He is one of the speakers of REACH National
Youth Conference 2008, Srilanka; which help to form National Youth
Coalition on Sexual & Reproductive Rights in Srilanka.
9th ICAAP BYF Co-chair of Main Conference Committee:
MILINDA RAJAPAKSHYA (Sri Lanka)
National Youth Coalition on SRR. Milinda is currently
working as a Consultant to Support people living with HIV (PLHIV)
through the UNDP Regional Centre in Colombo. In addition to this
role, he supports the FPA Sri Lanka as a member of the Youth
Technical Advisory Committee, the Information Education and
Communication Committee and CRS Committee. Also, Milinda is the
Director of the Advocacy for the National Youth Coalition on Sexual
and Reproductive Rights in Sri Lanka. Recently, he started to work
with media to address issues related to PLHIV and adolescent’s
sexual and reproductive rights and appointed as convener for the
national campaign to response on SRH issues. He represented Sri
Lanka and young people in many international conferences including
the United Nations High level Meeting in New York, IHP+ in Geneva,
Switzerland among others. Currently, he is an undergraduate on
Management and fellowship holder of the University of Miami in
Florida, U.S.A.. This year, he serves to GYCA as national focal
point for Sri Lanka.
9th ICAAP BYF Co-chair of Advocacy Committee:
MIAN LIPING (China)
The World AIDS
Campaign and Youth Coalition . Liping joined the
World AIDS
Campaign at the beginning of March 2009 as the Youth
Campaign Coordinator after four years of work experience in the
field of HIV and AIDS at the national, regional and international
level. Liping is from the Hui minority in the northeast of China
and went to Beijing for her University study in 2002. She started
her involvement in the field in 2004, when she established a
student group on her campus which aimed at delivering knowledge
about HIV and AIDS to minority students. Her passion and leadership
were recognized, and she started to work with different youth, AIDS
and development NGOs, and international organizations in China as
staff, researcher, consultant and volunteer. At the beginning of
2008, Liping joined the international youth organization Youth
Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, and was elected as
one of the board of directors.
9th ICAAP BYF Co-chair of Media and Communications Committee
& BYF Website Administrator:
IGOR MOCORRO (Philippines)
YAFA,
PAFPI, and MHD-SHC. Igor is the Founder of
Youth AIDS Filipinas Alliance (YAFA). He is a
Registered Nurse in the Philippines and has been working as an HIV
& AIDS advocate and activist since 2006. Currently, he is
connected and working with YAFA, the Positive Action Foundation
Philippines, Inc. and the Social Hygiene Clinic of the Manila
Health Department. As part of his organizations' mission-vision, he
is involved in the prevention of HIV and in providing care and
support for persons living with HIV, their affected families and
significant others. He is active in providing education and
information on sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which he
conducts lectures and orientations on STIs and HIV among young
people and Filipino migrant workers. Also, he does counseling,
peer-education and referrals for clients who want to undergo the
VCCT (Voluntary Confidential Counseling and Testing) programs on
HIV. Igor represented his country and the youth in various local,
regional and international meetings and conferences such as the
2008 UNGASS High Level Meeting in New York, XVII International AIDS
Conference in Mexico City, the 24th UNAIDS Programme Coordinating
Board Meeting in Geneva, Switzerland among others. He is currently
taking his Master of Public Health in California, U.S.A.
9th ICAAP BYF Co-chair of Asia Pacific Youth Forum
Committee:
RUSLI HALIM (Indonesia)
Independent
Youth Alliance. Rusli believes in human rights, social
justice and human dignity and it naturally lead me to the field of
youth activism. He has advocated at the local and national level on
behalf of Indonesian youth sexual and reproductive health. For the
past 4 years, he has participated in Independent Youth Alliance, a
network of youth from diverse backgrounds. Young people who are
represented in the Independent Youth Alliance are university
students, LGBTs, PLHIV, prison youth, IDUs, etc. Currently, Rusli
serves as the Chairman of the Independent Youth Alliance and his
roles include but not limited to development of the Alliance as a
well-established youth organization in the local and international
level.
9th ICAAP BYF Co-chair of Advocacy Committee:
HIMAKSHI PIPLANI (India)
Wake Up
Pune Campaign. Himakshi is a law student from India with a
keen interest in SRHR - at both policy and grassroots level. She
has been actively involved with the
Global Youth
Coalition on HIV/AIDS in various capacities including the
regional focal point where her primary task was to strengthen
GYCA's work of networking and sharing among youth activists,
capacity building and international advocacy. She has also been
doing a little bit of advocacy work through youth shadow reports
for UNGASS Review and sessions at various international platforms
such as the International AIDS Conference, etc. Himakshi is also
working with
Wake Up Pune Campaign, a grassroots initiative
that aims at addressing HIV & AIDS Stigma & Discrimination
as a social concern with active public participation. She has
essentially been associated with developing and strengthening the
youth component of the campaign.
9th ICAAP BYF Co-chair of Asia Pacific Youth Forum
Committee:
NABINA SHARMA (Nepal)
Youth
Initiative. Nabina has been working on HIV & AIDS since
2006 as an Executive Board Member of Youth Initiative, a pioneer
youth organization in Nepal. She is graduate of Public Health and
currently taking Sociology. Nabina has coordinated the "Between
Us", program on HIV & AIDS and sexual reproductive health and
rights and has organized more than 20 workshops on "HIV & AIDS:
A Social Issue". In 2008, she did couple of research on young
people's health and she was also involved in policy suggestion on
reproductive health and rights. She is interested on these issues,
particularly on social epidemiology of HIV & AIDS and youth
leadership to mitigate the impact of HIV infection.
