Nelly Mahit Atan

HIV / AIDS - Education - Vanuatu (Oceania)

“In my country, the issues that need to change are people’s attitudes towards relationships and reproductive health topics. Many of the chiefs, the leaders of the churches and the gate-keepers are not allowing young people to learn more about Adolescent Reproductive Health and Sexually Transmitted Infections including HIV/AIDS.” Young people form the majority of Vanuatu's population. By conduction workshops and life skill trainings in various communities, Nelly wants to raise awareness and provide information on sexuality and reproductive health. “Many youth are scared to talk about these topics. Not knowing about HIV/AIDS is more likely to cause the disease to spread.”

By conduction workshops in various communities Nelly wants to raise more awareness about sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. The majority of Vanuatu’s population is youth. Nelly aims to educate young people on adolescent reproductive health and life skills training. She will work with a youth organisation in Port Vila to increase access to this information for youth. Her goal is to reduce the number of STIs and teenage pregnancies, maintain the number of HIV/AIDS cases as well as to empower young people to make decisions and be able to talk easily about AIDS.