Ashoka´s Youth Venture, MTV Latin America with the support of M.A.C AIDS FUND launched in 2011 the campaign Agents of Change: Take the lead. We looked for the best youth-led solutions to raise awareness, educate, prevent and confront HIV/AIDS pandemic among youth across Latin America.
We received 125 projects of different Latin-American countries from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Ecuador. We selected 50 winners’ teams which demonstrate their innovation, impact and sustainability. To see the complete list of winners click here.
The diversity of ideas that we received showed the innovation and creativity of the Latin American youth. They also show us the local interpretation of how we can prevent the spread of the pandemic. There were al kind of project, ones focused on prevent and educate sexual health among youth, from how to use correctly a condom to strategies on how to advocate for better policies and guarantee better access to health services and treatment. There were other projects focused on stopping prejudice, stigma and discrimination around HIV/AIDS.
The winners received a variety of prizes, including seed grants, mentorship, and sponsorship to participate at the Ashoka Youth Summit in Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo. Some winners received special internships with Ashoka Fellows to scale up their projects. Additionally, some teams won the opportunity to be filmed by MTV and aired their projects around the region.
The campaign´s goal is to inspire and support every young people that is interested on taking the initiative and create change, those are the “Agentes de Cambio”.