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 March
24, 2005 New York City educational nonprofit organization
Global Kids, held its annual youth conference at New School
University to discuss global health.
The conference began at 8 AM with over 600 participating NYC
high school students and teachers. The day consisted of workshops,
guest speakers, debates and performances until 4 PM. The conference’s
theme was that global health is priceless. The students feel
that they need to be informed of world issues so that they
can take the initiative to try to solve world problems with
real solutions.
“It’s one thing to be informed, but what is the
sense to be informed and you can’t do anything about
it and pass it on to different people,” said Global
Kids alumni Michael Alexander, a freshman at New York City
College of Technology.
The morning workshops focused on global health. One workshop
topic was HIV and AIDS, where the students were discussing
ways to help those infected and how to promote global health.
South Africa was the main focus of the discussion because
it has the highest rate of death from HIV in the world.
The guest speaker for the workshop was Anne Magege, the director
of the Ubuntu Education Fund, an non-profit organization to
help raise AIDS awareness in South Africa. She informed the
students about the percentage of women who had HIV and had
children before they turned eighteen years old. She explained
that girls were five times more likely to get HIV than men
because of rape, their inferiority to men in their communities
and the lack of resources.
“I don’t know anyone who is dying of AIDS”
Magege said quoting South Africa’s President. “(AIDS)
does affect the country, but Mandela came out really strong
and said that his child had died from AIDS," she added.
To Magege, Mandela’s decision to inform the world of
the cause of his son’s death was accepting that there
is a serious problem going on in South Africa. She did not
understand how Mandela’s son could have died from AIDS,
when it would have been easier for him to access the treatment
that he needed.
This is the reason why Global Kids wants to make its students
aware of world issues currently
taking place. By exposing the youth to global issues, Global
Kids hopes that these current problems can be resolved if
we shape those who will be making future decisions. “You
take the initiative to change something that you don’t
like and go for it,” said Estephanie Tadle, a senior
at Beacon High School involved with Global Kids for three
years. “That’s what I learned. Just be more aware,
more educated and spread the words to others.”
Global Kids Executive Director and Founder Carole Artigiani,
believes that young people have the potential to make decisions
and should be included in that process. She created Global
Kids to strengthen and promote democracy within the youth.
“My feeling is that if you want to be an affective citizen
you need to have a global perspective,” Artigiani said.
“You need to know that world affairs influence one’s
own experience and how we individually have an influence on
world affairs.”
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