1 December 2005, Taguig, - Thousands of young people gathered here today at The Fort Open Field, Taguig City in support of UNICEF’s 'UNITE FOR CHILDREN, UNITE AGAINST AIDS’ Campaign.

Now on its third year, MTV’s Staying Alive Music Summit for HIV/AIDS, has become an annual celebration of unity to fight HIV/AIDS - a disease that has already taken its toll on the lives of millions of children all over the world.

Drawing together the best rock and pop musicians in the country, the Music Summit also aims to promote awareness of this deadly pandemic. In droves, students, teenagers and young volunteers from different organizations packed the concert area aiming to convey the message to theirs peers and their communities that the spread of HIV/AIDS must be brought to a halt.

“I came here today and even brought my friends as well to support the global campaign against HIV/AIDS, and of course, help UNICEF fulfill its mission to improve the lives of children’, says Yasmina Wingo, 20, a college student and a volunteer for UNICEF.

”‘I had no idea that more children die of the disease and the numbers are horrifying. We must put an end to this,” a teary-eyed Yasmina declares. Ryan Christopher Moreno, 20, also a student, thinks that to stop HIV/AIDS from affecting people, "we have to uplift our moral standards".

"Since it is an incurable disease, we have to be aware of the person we are with. Protection like condoms just doesn’t work sometimes. I think it necessary to be abstinent," Ryan adds.

Jacky Urbano, 21, agrees on the necessity of abstinence. ‘Very few men in the Philippines use ‘protection’ and if everyone is careful and their partners are careful, we can fight this dilemma. Sex education classes must also be improved or initiated in schools. If we don’t want a massive spreading of the disease, we need to talk about topics related to HIV/AIDS very openly."

A 14- year-old high school student, Jerick came with his friends to watch their favorite bands perform but was not surprised at all to find out that that the concert was an awareness campaign on HIV/AIDS.

"I think a gathering like this is important because young people need to know that HIV/AIDS has no cure. We should know more about this deadly disease and also we need to have more events like these in our communities, even just in smaller scales," he says.

"I have learned much about HIV/AIDS today,’ says Joseph, 15, as he waited in line to take the survey on HIV/AIDS awareness in the UNICEF booth.

"I only wanted a t-shirt at first in exchange of taking the survey, but I learned so much from your posters inside the booth. It’s sad though," he adds as he glances at the poster in front of him which states that one child dies of AIDS every minute.

Clutching his yellow ‘UNITE FOR CHILDREN, UNITE AGAINST AIDS’
t-shirt, Joseph runs to the stage to listen to his band playing. He yells back and says, ‘But I think, I will not only wear this shirt, I’ll also try to spread the message about HIV/AIDS and about children dying everyday because of it!’

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For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact:

Dale Rutstein
UNICEF Manila, 901 0177 or 0917 866 4969, drutstein@unicef.org
Alexis Rodrigo
UNICEF Manila, 901 0173 or 0917 858 9447, arodrigo@unicef.org