The Uganda Network of Young People Living with HIV & AIDS (UNYPA) has launched the 11th edition of the Y+ Beauty Pageant at Hotel Africana, Kampala, under the theme “Integration for Sustainability.”
The campaign, running through to December 2026, seeks to end HIV-related stigma and discrimination and empower young people living with HIV to lead healthy, productive lives and influence decisions affecting their health and rights.
First held in 2014, the pageant has grown into a platform for confidence, peer support and community advocacy. By 2024, UNYPA reported 1,292 Y+ ambassadors and engagement with 5,650 stakeholders, including health workers, teachers and young people.
Ambassadors challenge stigma, share HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) information, and help peers connect with services and support.
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The pageant equips young people with leadership and advocacy skills, promotes positive living and treatment literacy, strengthens access to integrated HIV and SRHR services, and builds community support.
This year’s theme connects these efforts with psychosocial wellbeing, gender equality and existing health and community systems to sustain support beyond the campaign.
Who is involved?
The primary participants are young people aged 18–24 living with HIV. UNYPA will work with district youth networks, Y+ ambassadors, health providers, schools, families, faith and cultural leaders, government, civil society, development partners, the media and the private sector.
Following the launch, regional activities will take place in Jinja, Arua, Bushenyi, and Kampala during 9–25 November. These will include dialogues, school outreaches, and auditions. Selected 18 contestants will attend a residential boot camp on 3–7 December, followed by the grand finale at Hotel Africana on 8 December.
Through district networks, Y+ ambassadors will continue peer support, community education, referrals, and advocacy. Boot camp participants will develop community action plans, with mentoring and follow-up through UNYPA’s structures.
Partners are invited to support these plans through youth-friendly services, mentoring and resources for continued community action.
Remarks From The UNYPA Leadership
- Mary Rio, ED UNYPA
Your presence at the launch of the 2026 Y+ Beauty Pageant affirms that our health, our dignity, our leadership, and our aspirations deserve collective attention and investment.
It has been a while since we last implemented the Y+ Beauty Pageant campaign. For those of us within the civil society environment, we are aware of the different changes that have happened, and this has affected some of our programming.
Nevertheless, we are very glad that we are here today, that we are here again to engage a big number of young people, and to support a big number of young people. We are also here to engage the different stakeholders who support the Y+ Beauty Pageant.
Since its inception, the Y+ Beauty Pageant has provided a platform for young people living with HIV to build confidence, challenge stigma and discrimination, and become advocates within their communities.
Through mentorship, leadership training, and community engagements, the pageant has supported young people to use their voice and experience to create change in their different communities.
We celebrated ten years a year ago, and this is now the eleventh edition of the Y+ Beauty Pageant. Yet as young leaders, we cannot work alone. As young people, we cannot work alone. That is why we endeavour to ensure that we engage different stakeholders and also establish adult-youth partnerships.
When we talk about integration for sustainability, we seek that a young person who seeks HIV services may also need SRHR services, may need information, may need mental health support, protection from violence, may need to remain in school, live positively in school, and also be able to attain their education as a young person living with HIV.
This also means that the response must recognise and connect to our needs as young people.
- Dr. Dan Byamukama
The #YPlusPageant26 is an opportunity for young people to be sharpened, to acquire knowledge, to acquire information about HIV, about treatment, and about sexual and reproductive health.
Do not look at the beauty. Everybody, when they think of the pageant, they think of catwalks, and they stop there. They have not understood this unique initiative.
It is an opportunity that gives young people the chance to learn about reproductive health and rights, mental well-being, and advisory support. They then transfer this information and these skills to empower the general community.
I want to address directly the misunderstanding that has sometimes surrounded this initiative. Public discussion has included the claim that awards given to winners of beauty pageants for people living with HIV would encourage others to contract the virus to receive recognition or prizes.
I have never seen such far-fetched arguments advanced by other people. Nevertheless, we want to put that to rest. That argument misunderstands both the purpose of the pageant and the dignity of the young people who participate in it.
No responsible public health programme would encourage HIV infection. And this pageant does not do so. Its purpose is to recognise leadership, courage, knowledge, advocacy and service among young people who are already living with HIV.
The award recognises the person and their contribution. It does not reward HIV infection. We should be able to put that misunderstanding to rest, once and for all.
Address from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The Y+ Beauty Pageant stands out because it is driven by motivation, not by financial gain. It is driven by genuine interest and by efforts made within communities where young people are best placed to lead. That community grounding creates a ripple effect.
Another strong feature of this campaign is that it is very positive and innovative. And lastly, but importantly, it is led by young people who know exactly what young people need and what their interests are.
This year’s edition comes at a time when we have been made aware of an increase in HIV infections among young people, especially among young women. That is unfortunate, but it only shows that continued efforts are needed.
We believe this campaign will help to eliminate stigma, bring conversations out into the open, and encourage people to want to know their status. This will also contribute to preventing new infections.
For the Netherlands, sexual and reproductive health and rights remain high on the agenda. Engagement on norms around sexual and reproductive health, and equality of rights for all as the basis of SRHR, remains our strong focus.
The Y+ Beauty Pageant has received our financial support in the past through various collaborations. It currently receives support through a new programme with Choice for Youth and Sexuality called When Youth Meet. We are very happy to see that this collaboration is now also reflected in the groups here today.
During today’s event, I understand you have looked back at the highlights of the campaign and shared plans for the future. I would like to give my compliments to all who have contributed, especially the campaign organisers, the campaign ambassadors and other participants.
I wish the contestants of this new edition success, and all involved the best of luck in running the campaign.
The campaign now covers 40 districts out of 155. Today’s event gives us the opportunity to share information about Y+ and to work towards countrywide coverage.
- Miss Mary, US Embassy representative.
The United States Government remains committed to moving forward systems in both the public and private sectors for high quality health care.
The Government of Uganda is in the lead, along with our local organizations. Our role is to continue to support that leadership, and to ensure that the voices of young people and communities continue to be heard.
We are changing the method, but not the mission.
For decades, support for health care has been a key aspect of United States Government foreign assistance. That commitment continues. Under the America First strategy, we have key pillars that we continue to pursue, and we are also working with the Government of Uganda to increase its own health expenditure.
What that means in practice is that as we collaborate together, we expect the Government to increase investment in the health care sector across the board.
The END
