User:Loghead87/Life in my Shoes

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Life in my Shoes is an awareness campaign by London-based charity, Body and Soul, which aims to raise awareness about those living with HIV among people and particularly, teenagers. The campaign also aims to tackle the stigmas and prejudice which exists among young people and force HIV-positive people into isolation. The campaign is supported by the cast of The Misfits: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Antonia Thomas and Iwan Rheon as well as The Inbetweeners: Emily Head and Blake Harrison. In the video commercial, the actors describe how people can take part and also provide a few pointers about acting.

The campaign was officially launched on February 17th by asking those aged 14-21 to download a script and upload a video during which the script is read and acted out. All the participants will then be judged by XXX and a winner will be selected. The winner will then have the chance to act in a longer film, due to be released in September, which will be part of the larger, educational pack of the Life in my Shoes awareness campaign. This will take place in all public and private school in the London, England area.

The campaign was born following a survey conducted by Office for Public Management The survey found that:

- Over 9 in 10 young people knew they that HIV could not be transmitted through unsafe sex - over 85% of young people know that HIV could be transmitted through receiving infected blood transfusion and 84% indentified unsterilized needles as a means of transmission.

However, the survey also found other statistics which served as the basis for the need for the Life in my Shoes awareness campaign. They were:

- 81% of young people surveyed knew that HIV could not be passed from sharing a glass, yet only 27% said they would share a glass with someone who is HIV positive. - 69% of the surveyed knew that could not get HIV from kissing, yet only 24% of them said they would kiss someone diagnosed as HIV-positive.

The research also suggested that the contradictions in knowledge about HIV increased with age with 46% of 12-13 year-olds, 54% of 14-15 year olds and 61% of 17-18 year olds citing the statistic mentioned above.

Body and Soul, a London-based charity, found OPM’s survey as a reason to educate this age group as many of those surveyed admitted that they would like to learn more about HIV. -	57% said that they had already been given enough information, 41% felt that they had received too little information -	79% said that that they had not been taught anything about HIV in schools, with only 27% saying that they had. -	Young people also tended to feel that teachers were the most trustworthy, which signifies that schools can be a good avenue to learn more about HIV.