What is the Australian Student AIDS Campaign?

2009-11-18T01:04:00.000-08:00

The Australian Student AIDS Campaign

What is the Australian Student AIDS Campaign?

The Australian Student AIDS Campaign (ASAC) is a movement of students from across Australian high schools, colleges and universities, who are committed to bring to an end HIV/AIDS in Australia and around the world, through informative education, informed advocacy, media and television work, and through direct action.

What are we fighting for?

Fund the Fight * Treat the People * Drop the Debt * Stop the Spread.

In a little over a quarter of a century, the AIDS virus, HIV, has killed in excess of 25 million people, more that all the wars we fought in the 20th century, and with someone being infected every 12 seconds with HIV and person dying of AIDS every 16 seconds every day – there are over 34 million people living with HIV around the world.

We need a new approach to effective and science based, community based, prevention and awareness programs and inexpensive, life saving HIV and AIDS medications.
For us to accomplish this, ASAC demands that ALL people who require life saving medication be able to access vital treatment. That the Australian Federal Government invests funds to share the global burden of HIV and AIDS needs. That a comprehensive prevention, education and awareness programs be developed within the school education curriculum in Australia. We would also ask the Australian Federal Government to advocate on behalf of vulnerable third world countries, for the cancellation of foreign debt that could be seen to be preventative to them funding adequate HIV and AIDS education programs.

What do ASAC chapters do?

Australian Student Campaign chapters participate in national campaigns and actions as well as develop and carry out their own projects.
The work of ASAC chapters includes
• Educating students about the global AIDS crisis and their role in fighting it by holding teach-ins, film screenings, lectures, etc. on campus
• Lobbying, writing letters, and making phone calls to the President and members of Congress about global AIDS
• Utilizing media and direct action by holding rallies and press events to galvanize public opinion in the fight against AIDS
Raising money for and in partner with organizations fighting AIDS in Australia and/or abroad.

How can you help?

Talk to your friends; encouraging them to do the right thing when it comes to sexual partners, and to never share needles.
Join a local chapter of the Australian Student AIDS Campaign

Our Mission Statement

The Australian Student AIDS Campaign (ASAC) is an Australian based network utilizing the student voice across Australia, with affiliations to youth based, youth run, organisations committed to the global fight against the AIDS epidemic.
ASAC seeks to engage students from all racial backgrounds, and working in tandem with students in countries around the world, to make claims to governments, corporations, and the broader community through education, community action, informed advocacy, direct action and leadership training.
ASAC also demands that more resources, effective prevention and guaranteed access to HIV and AIDS treatment, and care as a matter of morals and basic human rights.

Vision Statement

We envision a world in which AIDS is no longer a death sentence, a world in which economics and geography do not determine access to life-saving drugs, and a world where every woman, man, and child has the knowledge, means, and rights to protect her or himself from infection.
To achieve this world, we must remake our institutions to reflect a shared commitment to our common humanity. We must confront the underlying causes of the AIDS epidemic - poverty, inequalities of race, gender, and class, sexual stigmas, and a politics that allows us to deny our responsibilities to and for each other.
Our global economy must be matched by a global conscience. We have the tools to fight AIDS: prevention, treatment, and support for orphans and families. To succeed, we must summon the will to use these tools. We will not accept excuses for inaction; we will not accept false barriers that divide us; we will not accept the myth that any of us are powerless.

We pledge ourselves to the struggle against AIDS, a struggle that becomes a fight against apathy, against indifference, against injustice, and by forming a global youth movement; we will rise to the challenge of fighting AIDS. We will halt this pandemic.

AIDS is the crisis of our generation and we will be defined by our response to it. Years from now, we will have to answer our own children: did we stand by as millions died or did we take action? We will make our children proud.

Imagine the Possibility of an HIV-Free Generation : It Begins with YOU!!!