August 12, 2007: UNICEF’s Global Campaign and NGO Siberian Initiative united 135 youth volunteers from all over Russia in Southern Siberia.
For five unforgettable days this August, UNICEF’s long term partner, the non-governmental organization Siberian Initiative, brought together 135 volunteers from 51 youth organizations working against AIDS across Russia. Carel de Rooy, the UNICEF representative in the Russian Federation, visited this Summer School for Volunteers to meet these young people who are impacting the lives of thousands of their peers through one-to-one counseling, facilitating group training, referring them to youth-friendly services, organizing mass actions and events on HIV, STI, drug abuse, and prevention, as well as promotion of a healthy life style. The young people came to visit the School from 27 different regions of Russia to share their diverse experience and learn more about UNFPA’s initiative Y-PEER, the Dance for Life action run in Russia by Focus-Media Fund, leadership and networking, personal development and counseling of especially vulnerable adolescents. Thanks to the national HIV prevention project, supported by the Federal Government, TV presenter Alexey Lisenkov and rock singer Yulia Chicherina also came to the School. They will let millions of Russian adolescents learn about it on August 24th in the weekly TV program “AIDS Ambulance”.
UNICEF has been supporting this Summer School for seven years now since it first began in 2000. This year, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Development, UNFPA and GTZ also supported the School.
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More information: UN Radio features on UNICEF's summer school (in Russian)