This Saturday 27th May 2006 I see myself travelling for the first time to the US and as exciting as this may seem, my visit there will be a little different.

As a youth delegate at this years UNGASS review meeting I expect to get a clearer and better way forward to the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS especially on issues relevant to youth, their programmes, policies and further advocate for change in funding policies/procedures.

As a young person growing up in a country with one of the highest prevalence rates in the world is one of the toughest things a young women trying to establish herself should have to face. Botswana has a population of 1.7 million with a prevelance rate of 17.1% in 2004(NACA).

Despite the seemingly low population prevalence rate, I wake up every morning to find there is yet another loved one to visit in the hospital, another death, another funeral to attend and another child orphan adding to the existing 112,000 orphans country wide, and these people are our parents, children, relatives, brothers and sisters.

Despite the hard work that my country is doing for its people, like free enrollment of anti-retroviral (ARVs), the HIV/AIDS pandemic still continues to be a threat and as my president once said, "We are threatened with extinction. People are dying in chillingly high numbers. It is a crisis of the first magnitude. "Its about time we discussed realistic, measurable and achievable ways of combating the pandemic and I hope to get a plan by the time I leave New York on Saturday.