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Mexico City: Keren Dunaway was five when her parents used drawings to explain to her that they both had the HIV virus -and so did she.
Now the 12-year-old is one of the most prominent Aids activists in Latin America and a rarity in a region where few children are willing to break the silence and tell their classmates they have HIV for fear of rejection. She edits a children's magazine on the virus.
"The boys and girls who live with HIV are here and we are growing up with many goals," Keren said on Sunday at the opening of an international Aids conference where she shared the stage with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
"We want to be artists, teachers, doctors - even get married and have kids. But achieving these goals will only be possible when we receive the attention we need, when we are guaranteed the medicines that we need, when we are accepted in schools."
Deep breaths
Taking deep breaths to overcome stage jitters, Keren delivered what was clearly the star speech of the conference's inauguration: Audience members repeatedly interrupted her moving words with loud applause, and followed her discourse with a standing ovation that lasted well after she left the stage.
In an interview days before the conference, Keren talked matter-of-factly about the virus she has had since birth, flashing a dimpled smile and exposing a row of braces.
"It's like a little ball that has little dots, and is inside me, sort of swimming inside me," she said, curling her fist as she recalled what her parents explained to her with drawings long ago.
Worldwide, people aged 15-24 accounted for 45 per cent of people infected with HIV in 2007, according to the 2008 UN Aids report.
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