Growing Up Positive

These are the real life experiences of young people and their families, and how they have grown up having to face the realities of AIDS. They are not case studies of a virus, but success stories in how to live with HIV and AIDS, to have fun and be young. From a dozen interviews with young people and those who work with and for them, the book reveals the broader picture of how young people see AIDS and HIV, the impact it has had on their everyday lives, and how it has affected their ideas and futures. All of these true experiences from around the country show that AIDS is yet another challenge faced by the young in Britain today. Their words reflect the many difficulties they have overcome - suicide, prison, drug use, running away from home, broken relationships, coming to terms with sexuality, physical abuse, seeking political asylum. Their stories, stretching from Uganda and South Africa to Birmingham, London and Edinburgh, prove that AIDS is only one part of the whole picture. Learning to survive has involved changing in many ways - recognizing how to cope as ordinary young people in extraordinary times and situations. Growing Up Positive is also a celebration of the extended family that has developed around young people with AIDS and HIV. Here are the people who have provided support, information and help - priests, counsellors, health workers, youth workers and parents. Although it is often society's attitudes towards young people which cause the problems, fostering a caring and understanding approach to the needs of young people is one of the most important solutions to the AIDS crisis.