“Am I doing something about AIDS?” While trying to answer this question, three pupils of SSS Ebène won the national PowerPoint competition organised by the ministry of Youth and Sports. Caroline Laverdure, Christina Dacruz and Saadiyah Husnoo felt they could make a difference by proposing the setting up of a youth movement to create awareness about AIDS.

“When we reached the qualifying round for the competition and saw the Lower 6 pupils present there, we asked ourselves when that nightmare would end…” recalls Christina. “But it turned out to be the exact opposite of a nightmare,” adds Caroline. They were indeed the only IV-formers in the competition and thought they would have no chance of getting a place in the finals.

However, their idea of proposing the implementation of a movement that would not only help create awareness of the virus but also help those affected with it won the jury’s support. “We knew that most of the participants would insist on a brief on Aids and on the existing awareness. We felt like doing something more,” says Christina. As they all felt very concerned by the topic, they did not have much difficulty in finding ideas. Of course, their presentation contained a “brief” but it also involved a survey of young people where they said how aware they were of the issue and mainly the proposal of setting up UniAids.

UniAids aims to be a national movement where young people will engage in “active activities” on Aids. The three girls have already contacted some of the participants but they first have to “concentrate on the exams that are coming soon”. However, some of the girls at school and elsewhere already appear excited about taking part in the project. And minister Sylvio Tang has promised to back the project. The criteria for the competition were not merely about the content. The presentation itself had to convince the jury. Here again, they managed to impress, especially through their “friendly approach”. “After the qualifying round, we changed everything in the presentation and were quite anxious because we had won with our previous one. But we managed to do exactly what we wanted with the pictures and a friendly approach and this might be what made us win in the end,” comments Saadiyah.

In fact, when the school asked them if they were interested in taking part in the project, they immediately accepted because the topic was of interest to them. But, as they were working on it, they became aware of the lack of facilities given to people affected by Aids. This is why they expect the movement to not only create awareness but also “provide psychological support and fight against prejudice”.