Some Historical Information about us

On Saturday, June 3, 2006, Changing Lives, Inc. hosted a conference designed to help educate young people about the AIDS epidemic in Africa and its affect on children in Africa. The conference was covered by Abby Gruen, a reporter for the Journal News. Here is some of what she wrote.

Mark Malloch Brown, U.N. deputy secretary-general, sat before diplomats and heads of state from more than 140 U.N. member states Friday night as the General Assembly concluded a high-level meeting during which it renewed its commitment to battling the global AIDS epidemic. At 9 a.m. yesterday, Malloch Brown stood before 80 Westchester teens and interested adults at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church to talk about building a community response to the epidemic in Africa."The essence of community development is individual and community action. I do my work at the global level, so it's a wonderful chance to bring home what I do around the world." said Malloch Brown.

"Africa represents around 10 percent of the world's population and over 70 percent of the world's AIDS cases." said Elhadj Sy, the first speaker and director of the HIV/AIDS Group for the U.N. Development Program. "But numbers and statistics will never tell the whole story." Sy spoke of the impact of the epidemic on young children forced to care for parents who are suffering and dying of AIDS; the children are then left alone.

At the conclusion of the conference, Sy said, "There is a lot of hope when you see people thousands and thousands of miles away from Africa talking about HIV/AIDS. It shows us that the face of the global epidemic is not 'them,' it is 'us,' and this gathering reveals the best in us."

The Changing Lives Conference was a big event that generated a lot of energy,
enthusiasm and excitement. We left the conference motivated to take action.

More about the actions of Changing Lives, Inc. next time.