I’m Stephen W Waweru from Dance4Life Kenya.My dad died six years ago,as a result of Aids and my mother died in December last year with the same disease,after a long term of illness and suffering.But the result of my father’s death was a mystery to my siblings and i,until last year when my mother got ill and tested positive.Watching my both parents dying was the most painful experience in my life,and mostly because of the fact that they died of Aids.How were they infected? Is it because they had no knowledge about the disease?Those are the questions I still ask myself till today. We have experienced a lot of challenges with my family,rejections and even abused,but mostly the agony and suffering my parents went through till the last day,and i would never want to see anyone go through that,or another soul lost because of Hiv and Aids.Maybe my parents were ignorant or dint get a person to tell them facts about Hiv and Aids, but personally I will use every minute I have,to tell out the truth to every person I get a chance to.I wonder how many people out there; don’t have the facts or any knowledge about this dangerous disease, especially the youths. I have dedicated my life to fight Hiv and Aids and use every platform I get to tell the world my story,and hope to save that one soul.I have a lot to talk about,but to all my fellow youths out there,Hiv and Aids is real.We are the ones to decide if this disease will end with our generation,and yes we can if we just decide to.Let’s come together and put an End!Hiv and Aids we can beat if we just take responsibility.

The Dance4life regional conference held in Tanzania was a great platform for young people, policy makers, media houses and various stakeholders in the HIV/AIDS scenario who are trying to play their part in helping to push back and halt the effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Dance4life works with young people and embraces their energy and enthusiasm making them agents for change in their schools and communities. Apart from the media and different organizations attending from within Tanzania the conference also had young people from Kenya (SHARON WANJIRU) and Zambia (ZGANGA T MVULA) Dance4life youth council attending, which provided for great diversity in the sharing experiences and way forward (s) in relation to young people living positively with HIV and how in both countries the situation was being dealt with. With all the learning and different topics discussed at the conference, what really came out strongly throughout the whole conference was evidence that dance4life Tanzania has done tremendous work over the years in reaching young people and actually giving them a voice. I could see this through the number of young people that came out to give their personal stories as positive speakers (Young people living with HIV/AIDS). A very unique, interesting and touching part for me through all this was a session called ”Voice of Hope(positive voice)” by Neema. One of the most beautiful and courageous girls I have seen. Her story though sad was very encouraging so was her confidence. Tanzania has such a high number of positive speakers within the dance4life movement, a sign that young people are being given enough platform. Within the group we met and had discussions with I met 3 very energetic positive speakers who are full agents for change and are part of the Heart connection, they each have a story to tell, very sad circumstances in their young lives and yet they laugh, dance and above all inspire and motivate others with their strength. I am made to understand most if not all ‘came out’ with their status as a result of dance4life (bravo!). It is just amazing how everyone loves and is supportive of everyone else in that group. People… and I speak from the heart when I say this; dance4life does give voice, strength and chance to prove ourselves as young leaders. It doesn’t matter whether it is training in Uganda, a meeting in the Netherlands or a conference in Tanzania, any group meeting to do a Dance4Life activity always has the same ‘aura’, a sense of purpose and the need for change. And boy am I glad to be a part of such a global movement! Tanzania ni nzuri, meaning Tanzania is beautiful! In Swahili (I hope I got that right)! Zganga T mvula, ZAMBIA.

Itz been 1 n half years am working in dance 4 life , recently, ,met a guy who is infected wit HIV positive n he dont want to live any more , he s in a urge to commit suicide , i saw the death fear in his eyes , for some moment i felt tat my heart is Pierced wit bunch of arrows , even i cried wit him , my mind reminded me about three things they are 1. social work 2. dance4 life 3 . humanity ,,,,,,,, so i just consoled my self n convinced him by counselling him about ART treatment n went to see his family members ........... o my god ! , even his wife , son is infected by HIV , dance 4 life controlled my tears , dance 4 life insisted me to take action against HIV , dance 4 life reminded me that i am a youth council member , so no more tears , i thought of bringing happiness in their family , now by the help of regular council ling , regular nutritive food , ART treatment , i can see the happiness in their family , ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,i really thank god and dance4life for making a difference in this guys life and making me a man !!!!!!!!!!!!! , now in their street no stigma , no discrimination , every body started loving them , very soon i will upload d snaps ,,,, wait n watch guys!!!! hatz off to dance4life !!!!!

My dad having died of HIV and Aids,and currently living with my mother who is HIV and Aids Positive.My family has gone through allot of emotional moments,rejections and life strangles.This made me ask myself allot of questions and much understanding.That is why i dedicated my life in fighting HIV and Aids in every way i can and share out my story to the world.Being a Dance4Life member,i have come to learn that the most Effective way to stop the spread of HIV and Aids,is mostly through the youths.They are the only hope of starting a new generation free from HIV and Aids.As for my move,i have started a Facebook Group Page(Youth 4 Action) that will help in exchange of ideas,youth interaction on topic based on HIV and Aids,Posting of Educative Links and answering questions on HIV and Aids.

***Monthly blog as part of the World of Difference programma of the Vodafone Netherlands Foundation"*** The Vodafone Foundation does not only give every year five youngsters a chance to make a “World of Difference” somewhere in the world, also employees of Vodafone get a chance to make a difference via the “World of Difference employee program”. Through this program, five selected Vodafone employees will visit the current “World of Difference” winners to support them with their project in general or a specific casus. A unique opportunity, not only for them but definitely for us as well since the selected Vodafone employees come with tonnes of expertise and experience! “My” winner is Christianne Rugl, Campaign Specialist at the Marketing Communications department of Vodafone Netherlands. Our project: To develop a plan on how to introduce the new online dance4life platform in Mexico. This platform is developed for our agents4change especially, to give them an easy tool to share their stories with the rest of the world. So there I was on the 28th of August, waiting at the airport to pick up someone I had only seen once before and with whom I would spend a lot of time the coming two weeks. Fortunately, we directly formed a great team and we had two very useful weeks together, combined with a lot of fun! A short summary: we visited the dance4life program in Monterrey (North Mexico), we made a questionnaire which was filled in by youngsters in Monterrey and Mexico City, we spend time talking to the youngsters, visited our program for street children in Mexico City, we were brainstorming, analysing and making plans….and much much more! Besides all of this, we also worked on an article for Clear Magazine, the bi-monthly magazine of Vodafone, available in all Vodafone shops in the Netherlands. In this article, the visit of Christianne to dance4life Mexico will be mapped with pictures. For all foreign readers, I turned the article into a video, so you can still see what we have done. See the video below this story. Altogether, last month was a super interesting period, with lots of very special and meaningful meetings. The most impressive one was probably with Ricardo, a youngster living on the streets of Mexico City. You may have seen him already in my video of last month. He is very enthusiastic about the dance4life program and although he’s living a rough and chaotic live, he comes to the dance4life workshops every week. We showed him the video and for him it was very special to see and hear that people in Holland, Mexico and other countries have seen this video and thus him as well. My colleague Katinka, visiting Mexico last month as well, wrote a beautiful story about this on our platform (see http://bit.ly/oCnlB5) And…..I just received the news that Ricardo will join our Heart Connection tour team! A great boost for him and for us…..to be continued! So, what’s next? Christianne is back in The Netherlands, our plan is almost finished and I’m currently finalizing the first draft of the marketing strategy for dance4life Mexico…also to be continued! Christianne, many thanks for your visit and your great support. Me he gustado mucho! Saludos Judith