MTV Staying Alive just launched a new campaign called “There's No Sex In Heaven”. Are they sure? Is it really a paradise without sex? What IS sure is that if you'll always use a condom, you will probably not go to heaven thàt fast.  

Jay-Z gave his blessing for gay marriage, hereby supporting Obama in his decision to allow and appreciate gay marriage. He finds that you can choose to love whoever you love. All I can say to that is: You go, Jay-Z! He’s right in saying that not allowing gay marriage, is just  as much of discrimination as discriminating against black people. We all know Jay-Z to be a talented rapper, so Jay, here’s some idea for a next song:  “If you’re having gay problems, I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but gay marriage ain’t one. “

It's dinner time at IHAEC and Veniamin and Darja decided to prepare Plov - a Middle Asian dish, that's popular in Eastern Europe. The name itself means the order of putting ingredients, but I am not sure about the exact language ;)  

Not everybody can be a genius. Not everybody can generate ideas like a fountain. But what can you do if you have a task at hand and nothing comes into your mind? Or you have a nice idea, but you're stuck in the details? After staying in IHAEC for such a long time, I decided to come up with the idea of writing a special manual. It can be useful for everybody who wants to be cool and creative. Here's some advice to start with:Be cool. You want to be creative? The slogan "You are what you are wearing" can help to be the somebody that you want to be. People have the prejudice that genius guys are a bit crazy and non-punctual - this is something I'd never advice to do. There are some positive things you can change, like the way you dress and talking about David Lynch filmography a lot. But please try not to cross the line between a creative person and the usual hipster. Do not freak yourself out. Do not think about deadlines or other things that will stress you. It will never give you time off. It's better to relax and to enjoy the creative process. Also, you can start to doubt your abilities. The best way to force them? Just start doing what you have to do. First, it will look scarily big, but after finishing you will realize that you have muscles, both mental and physical.Free your mind from clichés. Boring and rutting things are such a cliché. We don't always notice them because we got used to them. Normally people think with ditect associations, like "tree-forest", "sky-plane". If you want to create something original, you should think another way than everybody else. Thinking with indirect associations can be useful. Build the line with three objects that can come into your mind: "tree-forest-hunter", "sky-plane-airport", now we have more original links: "three-hunter", "sky-airport".Work with inspiration. If you don't have to work in the office, you are lucky. That means that you have a freedom to chose any place that is comfortable for creation. It can be anything from a park to a hospital. You can also decorate your working space somehow. Switch on the music, watch a movie, feel free to daydream. Manage your time. Find the time when you work most productively. Normally, that's in the hours before lunch and before dinner, but not after. After the meal people are more sleepy, so the brain works slower. As for me, I prefer to work in the night, when everybody sleeps and everything is quite and peaceful around me.Improve your skills. The creation of something in a new, unknown sphere is like learning to play a musical instrument: to be able to improvise, you should practice a lot. The Picasso style of painting looks primitive and it is easy to copy some of his pictures, but he made a long journey in learning the technics. If you have a passion for something - get into it!This is not a mentorship. This is just something I studied in IHAEC, noticed that it helps me and I decided to share.The main advice is really simple: if you want to do something - just do it!

One of the things people tell us when we ask why they don't use condoms is that it feels 'unnatural', so when we saw this advertisement for Skyn condoms;, full of sexy young lmadies professing that they just LOVE sex, we thought we'd share it with you. From what we hear, other brands also offer ultra thin condoms, so there are no more excuses: Wrap It Up Before You Fuck It Up! After all, getting infected by HIV or another STD, or becoming pregnant before you're ready isn't a bag of fun either.    

We took a little field trip to the Gay Parade in Brussels this weekend! Because admit it, this is the event of the year. We were quite late though, so we had to chase after the parade to get a glimpse of the action, but it was totally worth it.  From fabulous drag queens, to guys who can belly dance better than I can. Of course, it wasn’t all about partying (although that was a big part). My backpack  was filled with condoms and flyers again… This seems to become a habit, I think! I got a lot of kisses and hugs in trade for condoms, but the flyers didn’t go so well so we had to find a solution for that, no? I decided to show our Antwerp pride and ran up to the truck who represented the Antwerp gay pride and asked them very nicely if we could represent Designers Against Aids in the parade by getting on the truck. And guess what , it worked. And what a party it was up there! Never danced so much in my life. And Veniamin seemed to love the gay parade also, since he took 1600 pictures of it… I guess this is why we call him a photoholic! Oh and we like to thank the  very nice girl who practically threw herself over the edge of the truck to hand out our flyers . She was so nice that I even got a little kiss at the end… It’s the gay parade after all!

The new campaign transfers a wonderful message. UNHATE what a great idea. Benetton has always very provocative campaigns. It is very untypical for a fashion brand, but effective. A message with hope and ironic.   A new ad campaign from United Colors of Benetton features photoshopped images of world political and religious leaders smooching in an effort to launch their UNHATE project. According to Benetton “These are symbolic images of reconciliation – with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation – to stimulate reflection on how politics, faith and ideas, even when they are divergent and mutually opposed, must still lead to dialogue and mediation.”

I've found a very funny video about a smoking sperm who can´t wait to start. Really funny and creative. I think humor is the best way to achieve awareness among young people. Unwanted pregnancy is one reason to use a condom, but the risk of a HIV infection is maybe the most importand reason to have safe sex. So have fun, have sex, but be safe!!

Our shop is open for customers! The first buyer was a lady with beautiful British accent, who would not leave the shop with empty hands. After a while, in spite of bad weather, the brave DAA team went to the streets to talk to people and to invite them to visit our store. Antwerp's inhabitants and tourists are polite and respectful, so we had a lot of nice conversations and met a lot of interesting persons from all over the world. Even if not everybody knows Designers against AIDS (yet!), when you say Rihanna, Tokio Hotel, H&M and Marc Jacobs, people always reply: Wow, you are cool! Remember, this is not just a shop to go and buy a T-shirt in- it's the place to share the idea of healthy living and beauty!  

Yesterday I was a part of an old Flemish tradition: DAA intern Ayke took me to the Massacantus in Mechelen. Students clubs came together to sing old traditional student songs and to drink a lot of beer but with some rules, which I have not properly understood. It was very noisy and strange for me, but after a few beers I had a lot of fun and I could even sing along a bit. It was an experience which I would never get as a normal tourist and I enjoyed it very much. Thanks, Ayke and DAA.

 This poster was the first that I saw when I entered the DAA house. I was really shocked about it. It makes me sad, that my motherland has such a big problem with HIV. I have to think about possibilities on how to push HIV awareness in such a big country, with a lot of other problems. Here my appeal in my native language.Береги себя и людей, которых ты любишь. Используй презервативы!!!"Take care about yourself and the people you love. Use condoms!!!"Darja Gontscharov

Hi! My name is Brigitte Stilma and I arrived at the DAA Education center yesterday evening. I am a International Business and Management Studies (Hogeschool Utrecht) student from Holland and I am here to do my internship for 10 weeks. I hope I can apply my knowledge to help building campaigns to make more people aware about the need of safe sex. We had our first meeting this morning and this week we will work on the opening of the Pop Up shop which opens this Wednesday in the City Hall at the Grote Markt in Antwerp.I really like Antwerp and I am sure I will really enjoy myself here with the other students!