Correction: The original version of this article contained an error. Ambassadors for Dance Marathon are youth whose lives have been affected by HIV, either through personal experience or that of one of their family members.
On her first trip to the United States, Josephine Nabukenya stood in front of a congressional briefing in Washington, D.C.
“We should kick, we should kick, we should kick AIDS out of the world,” she said in front of the legislative body, reading from a poem she had written.
On that night in 2005, Nabukenya, then age 12, urged policymakers to do more to help combat HIV/AIDS in the world.
Seven years later, Josephine Nabukenya is returning to the U.S. for her second visit in her life ““ this time as one of 12 ambassadors for this weekend’s Dance Marathon at UCLA.
Dance Marathon is an annual fundraiser where UCLA students dance for 26 hours straight to raise money for various HIV/AIDS organizations.
Ambassadors for the event are youth whose lives have been affected by HIV, either through personal experience or that of one of their family members. These ambassadors come to lead Dance Marathon teams, support the participants and dance with them.
But this is the first time an ambassador for Dance Marathon will be coming from abroad, said Lesley Girkins, a second-year physiological science student and member of the Dance Marathon Public Relations Committee.
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, one of Dance Marathon’s main beneficiaries, sponsored Nabukenya’s trip to the U.S.
“Having someone from another country shows that Dance Marathon is helping to fight HIV/AIDS at a global level, not just in Los Angeles and the United States,” Girkins said.
Nabukenya’s presence gives students the chance to get to know the people they’re helping and to see that the ambassadors are not any different from the students, Girkins said.
The Elizabeth Glaser Foundation chose Nabukenya to be an ambassador because she has worked with the foundation for a long time, said Taylor Moore, a communications associate for the foundation.
Nabukenya enjoys working with her peers and, given she is close in age to many of the students, she’s the ideal person to speak at UCLA about what needs to be done to help prevent HIV, Moore said.
Back in her hometown of Kampala, Uganda, Nabukenya faced discrimination after her peers found out she had HIV, she said. Her schoolmates avoided her and didn’t want to come near her because they weren’t properly educated about the virus.
With the help of the Elizabeth Glaser Foundation, which she learned about in 2003 from an HIV family support group she participated in, Nabukenya said she was able to work through the adversity.
“When discrimination comes your way, you just have to look and see if it is going to be a negative impact or a positive impact,” Nabukenya said. “Some things you just have to ignore.”
Nabukenya became an advocate for the foundation when she joined one of the foundation’s Ariel Clubs in 2003. The Ariel Clubs allow groups of HIV-positive youth to participate in activities together while learning about life with HIV.
Since then, Nabukenya has worked to ensure that others don’t suffer the same discrimination she experienced.
She is an active advocate, helping to educate her community about HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. In Kampala, Nabukenya leads a peer counsel group for other youth who are HIV-positive. She counsels about a hundred HIV-positive individuals, some as young as 5 years old.
Nabukenya said she wants people who don’t have HIV to learn how to keep themselves from being affected by it.
“People should try to get more information, because ignorance is one of the biggest problems we have,” Nabukenya said.
Nabukenya will spend Dance Marathon alongside UCLA students. She will also speak to the Dance Marathon participants on Saturday night.
She said she feels honored to be chosen by the foundation to be an ambassador for Dance Marathon.
“I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see what’s there and learn the moves,” Nabukenya said with a smile.
It is the support that youth like Nabukenya receive from organizations, including the Elizabeth Glaser Foundation, that Dance Marathon works to provide, Girkins said.
“(Nabukenya) is an incredible young woman,” Moore said. “She has worked so hard to help other children that are in the same position she’s in.”