On the 27th of November 2010, the Saturday before World AIDS Day, tens of thousands of young people all around the world danced simultaneously to make a worldwide statement to world leaders against HIV and AIDS. 2000 Zambian agents4change danced and connected to the world in the Olympic Youth Development Centre in Lusaka.
What is Dance 4 Life?
Dance4life empowers young people to push back HIV and AIDS, this has been implemented as part of the global youth movement in order to create social change.
Over 33 million people around the world are living with HIV and AIDS and each day thousands of them die from the effects. Almost half of the 7,400 people infected with HIV each day are under the age of 25; this equals to 2 teenagers per minute. This does nor come as a surprise as many young people in the Global South have little knowledge about sexual health and rights; only two out of five teenagers in the Global South know how to protect themselves against HIV. As the single largest group infected and affected by the virus, a huge part of the potential solution lies with young people. This is the reason to which Dance4Life is aimed for the youth and getting them involved.
Through international schools programmes and media campaigns, Dance4life creates awareness, educates, raises political support and funds. The schools programmes are built around a 4 step approach: inspire, educate, activate and celebrate. Young people who have participated in the schools programme become an Agent4change, creating social change worldwide.
AIMS AND RESULTS
Since its establishment in 2003 Dance4life has reached almost 300,000 agents4change. Dance4life’s goal is to facilitate a global youth movement of 1 million agents4change, creating social change worldwide by 2014.
The Global Zambian Magazine has been following the work of Dance4Life and we found it to be a great inspiration and motivator on how we can connect with the youth in an entertaining way whilst educating them about their health and rights.
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