IU group to march in capital

This Saturday, thousands of the nation's students and youth will rally together in front of the White House and march two miles to the Capitol to demand action to end HIV and AIDS. The first-ever national student AIDS march is being coordinated with youth all over the world as part of Youth AIDS Day, a global day of youth action to end AIDS.\nThe Student Global AIDS Campaign, in partnership with Africa Action and Advocates for Youth, is organizing the largest youth march and rally in U.S. history. \nNational Coordinator of SGAC Healy Thompson said she's very excited about this weekend's march and about relaying the message of ending AIDS worldwide.\n"We know this is just the beginning of the struggle," Thompson said. "By bringing young people together to propel the AIDS problem forward and to let the country and world know this generation will bring an end to AIDS."\nThompson also said the need to for student involvement in the AIDS awareness problem arises from the fact that half of all people infected with AIDS are under 25.\n"There are 40,000 new case of HIV reported every year; half of those infected are under the age of 25," Thompson said. "This is something our generation is facing. Everyone has access to prevention."\nKunal Suryawala, co-director of the IU chapter of SGAC, said planning for a trip like this weekend's required time and effort to raise the necessary funds.\n"We attended (Residence Halls Association) board of governors' meetings in the dorms to raise money, along with selling pizza in Ballantine," Suryawala said. "We've been trying to do as much as possible for car rental and hotel rooms and make this a good trip." \nSuryawala said he first got engaged with SGAC to get more involved on campus and realized the scope of the AIDS problem after he traveled overseas.\n"I wanted to get involved, and I recently went to India and saw so many cases of AIDS and how it was affecting people's families," Suryawala said. "There's not much I can do in India, but I wanted to do something here. I'm also hoping to go into medicine and I want to better people's lives."\nSuryawala said he hopes this weekend he can help bring attention to the AIDS issue both nationally and locally. \n"My biggest expectation is to get President Bush and his administration to make the changes that we want made," Suryawala said. "We want updated info of world AIDS and want to know what we can do locally here at school to help out with causes, for example, trying to get people more educated."\nSophomore Anjulee Patel, director of recruitment for the SGAC, is looking forward to the weekend's events and attending her first march. \n"My expectations are for eight to 10 thousand people in attendance at the march, which would be the biggest youth rally ever," Patel said. "I've never been to a youth rally; this should be a good way to get the word out."\nFreshman Anna Kostrzewsky said she is also eager to be a part of the biggest youth march ever.\n"I'm really excited to be a part of this march," Kostrzewsky said. "We've been doing a lot of planning to try and get ready."\nThompson said she is hoping to have at least 8,000 in attendance at Saturday's march.\n"Our goal is set at 8,000 -- a symbolic number of people who die every day of AIDS, and it's the number of young people who are infected every day."\n-- Contact Senior Writer Lindsay Jancek at lmjancek@indiana.edu.