Collingwood footballer Heritier ‘Harry’ O’Brien is proud to join the Burnet Institute as a youth ambassador. Heritier grew up in Perth and has played as a defender for Collingwood since 2005.
During a trip with his team to South Africa last summer, Heritier was impressed by the development challenge of improving the health and well-being of African communities. He also became aware of the terrible impact of the HIV epidemic in southern Africa, which tends to disproportionately affect young women and men.
Heritier, who is 21 years of age, supports the Burnet Institute’s approach of listening to the voices of young people and involving them in designing and communicating messages that reduce their vulnerability to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Heritier recently remarked that “...I like it that Burnet does not tell young people what to do but builds qualities like assertiveness, confidence, and respect for the opposite sex…while giving them the knowledge to protect themselves.”
The Burnet Institute is currently working on several youth-oriented programs in urban and rural Australia and places as diverse as Myanmar, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea. Innovative approaches are being taken to reach and involve hard-to-access youth, such as campaigns using mobile phone SMS, leadership development programs, interventions at popular music festivals and establishment of youth friendly health services.
Heritier looks forward to the opportunity of visiting Burnet’s HIV prevention and care programs, especially in Mozambique where the national tongue is Portuguese, a language he speaks fluently. And he invites you to learn more about the Burnet Institute’s activities with young people in Australia, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.
The following presentation highlights the Institute’s work with young people.
Burnet Institute: Focusing on the health needs of young people