For the first time, three of Melbourne’s largest HIV/AIDS organisations – Youth Empowerment Against HIV/AIDS (YEAH), the Victorian AIDS Council and Living Positive Victoria – joined forces for a collaborative event.

The focus of the day was to commemorate and celebrate World AIDS Day, fight stigma and remind the public that HIV is still an important issue.

Dozens of YEAH’s young sexual health peer educators volunteered their time on World AIDS Day-eve to run the Wheely Sexy trivia wheel, hand out condoms, and have conversations with people about sexual health. Living Positive Victoria signed up passers by to their ENUF campaign and VAC distributed thousands of red AIDS Day ribbons. The YEAH team was thrilled to be joined by some special guests for the day; the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibe, as well as UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador, James Chau, and Executive Director of the Friends of the Global Fund, Bill Bowtell.

At 3pm YEAH’s Paint the Town Red call-to-action took place, with hundreds of people gathering in Federation Square wearing red and carrying red balloons, where they heard Michel Sidibe and YEAH CEO Alischa Ross speak about World AIDS Day and the global HIV/AIDS response. YEAH also took control of the Fed Square big screen after 6pm with a special showing of their “What does World AIDS Day mean to me?” photo petition video. Hundreds of people from all over the world sent in petition entries sharing their memories and hopes for World AIDS Day.

It’s all a blur – day turned to night as Melbourne was inundated by a sea of red for the 2013 World AIDS Day event. The partnership delivered one of the strongest events in WAD history for YEAH in Melbourne. In addition to the Federation Square event, YEAH, with the support of the City of Melbourne, installed a public installation on Princes Bridge which featured giant red letters spelling ‘WORLD AIDS DAY’. The installation of the letters was an astronomical success (especially considering the potential bureaucratic pitfalls). It proved to be a catalyst for thousands of conversations and further raised public awareness of an issue that directly affects millions.

- Reece Cossar, YEAH volunteer

We want to say thank you to Fed Square for their wonderful support for our cause, and for everyone else who showed up to help us raise awareness.