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RAISA YEBO November 2004 - Women, Girls, HIV & AIDS
Regional AIDS Initiative
of Southern Africa/VSO
November 30, 2004
Editorial
In time for World AIDS Day, RAISA has re-launched its quarterly
newsletter Yebo. RAISA phase 1 has come to an end in accordance
with donor funding and we are anticipating starting phase 2 in January
2005. Yebo will stay an important contribution to the sharing of
lessons and good practice within the region.
In line with
the theme of World AIDS Day this year, this edition of Yebo is focusing
on Women, Girls, HIV & AIDS. Today in sub-Saharan Africa, close
to 60% of adults living with HIV are women, and 76% of young people
aged 15-24 living with HIV are female. VSO-RAISA has already undertaken
considerable work and research in this area culminating in the research
paper 'gendering AIDS: women, men, empowerment, mobilisation'
(see resources at end). We believe that the inequality between men
and women lies at the heart of the pandemic and that HIV & AIDS
has a particularly deep impact on women.
Key manifestations
of gender inequality that emerged during the research are:
- Gender violence
is linked to HIV transmission through rape, and reduces the ability
of women and vulnerable men to discuss sex with their partners.
- Unequal rights
to property mean that women may be forced out of their homes when
widowed or diagnosed with HIV. This increases their vulnerability
to illness and the need to undertake sex work.
- The burden
of caring for the sick falls predominantly on women, compounding
their domestic responsibilities and reinforcing stereotypes about
gender roles.
- Unequal access
to treatment means that fewer women then men are treated for HIV
and AIDS-related illnesses, directly increasing the impact of
the epidemic on women.
- Unequal access
to appropriate prevention information for women, and for men who
have sex with men, increases both groups' vulnerability
to HIV. Groups targeted by specific prevention interventions risk
becoming stigmatised in the larger population.
Based on this
research we developed a three-pronged approach to addressing the
problem outlined above:
- Greater
involvement of men and people living with HIV & AIDS;
- Addressing
the immediate needs of women affected by HIV & AIDS;
- Empowering
women to attain equality.
A large proportion
of VSO-RAISA's tools, such as our Small Grants Fund, workshops
and conferences, have been used to support women and men's
groups tackling gender inequality. Below you can read about how
these tools were used in the countries we operate in.
MOZAMBIQUE
In
Mozambique women make up more than 52% of its 18 million inhabitants.
However, this numerical majority is not reciprocated in other ways.
Women have higher illiteracy rates then men (68.2% compared to 36.7%
); unequal access to opportunities such as education, jobs, health,
land and housing; are not adequately represented in decision-making
bodies; and are not valued for their work. Cultural and societal norms
only exacerbate the sub-ordinate roles that women have.
In Mozambique more women than men are HIV positive in every age group.
Consequently, 14% of the total funding provided through the Small
Grant Fund (SGF) in RAISA I, focussed specifically on women and girls.
Activities funded ranged from prevention initiatives focused at commercial
sex workers in Maputo city to income generating initiatives by providing
sewing classes for AIDS widows in Tete province. One
of our strongest partners is the Ministry of Women and Coordination
of Social Action (MMCAS) at a National and Provincial level in Sofala
and Maputo provinces. Through the efforts of VSO volunteers placed
with this partner, women have been able to play more pro-active
roles because they received much needed training, recognition, support
and funding.
There is still
much work to do. Part of the problem in supporting women has been
the limited funding to work specifically on gender. And though the
government amended the Family Law this year to give women more rights
much advocacy is still needed to disseminate the law in local languages,
particularly to women most of whom are still unaware of their rights,
and also to implement this law.
For more information,
please contact Etelvina Mahanjane, RAISA Country Coordinator for
Mozambique, at etelvina.mahanjane@vsoint.org
"Men
have greater power and control over sexual relations and dominate
decision making about sex. It is crucial that men respond to the
pandemic. However, it is still necessary to promote the empowerment
of women and the development of women controlled prevention methods.
The interplay between sexuality, gender, poverty and AIDS is key
to our understanding and response to the pandemic"
- Peter Busse, Chair of the RAISA board, speaking at the 2003
RAISA regional conference on Men, HIV & AIDS.
NAMIBIA
The
need for action is clear from a research by the Namibian Ministry
of Health and Social Services, saying that a young girl will have
a 25% likelihood of dying from AIDS - related illness before
she turns 30, even if she is HIV negative on her 15th birthday. Within
our programmes we are trying to address some of these issues by using
RAISA's distinctive tools.
For example, one Volunteer works as a Business Development Officer
working at UNAM (University of Namibia) Northern Campus. His work
involves helping women and people infected and affected by HIV &
AIDS in small business development and skills. Another volunteer is
working as a Project Manager HIV & AIDS at !Nara Training Organisation.
!Nara has just completed a study and report focusing on the impact
of HIV & AIDS on women living in informal settlements.
RAISA also placed
a Financial Advisor with the Namibia Women's Network. This
organisation has a strong advocacy programme particularly around
50/50 representation, domestic violence and equal rights for women.
At government level one volunteer works as an HIV & AIDS Advisor
at the Ministry of Basic Education. Through this placement the volunteer
has been involved in the development and implementation of policies
that support children affected by HIV & AIDS to remain in school.
Alongside placing
volunteers, RAISA also uses other tools to try to diminish women's
vulnerability to HIV & AIDS. We were involved in the development
of the Domestic Violence Bill that was tabled and passed into law
in the last parliamentary sitting. We were a part of the committee
drafting the bill and because of this many of our partners were
invited to give feedback on the bill prior to it being tabled. Also,
we are supporting a number of Children affected by HIV & AIDS
shelters through training, financial assistance and networking,
and we use Small Grant funding to assist with the development of
a community vegetable garden in Katutura run by a group of women
infected and affected by HIV & AIDS.
For
further information about any of these projects please contact Lisa
Davidson, RAISA Country Coordinator for Namibia, at lisa.davidson@vsoint.org
SOUTH AFRICA
Violence
Against Women, including rape, is maybe even more of a problem in
South Africa then in surrounding countries. Since both HIV and Violence
Against Women are so prevalent in South Africa, VSO South Africa is
working on both issues in its two programme areas HIV&AIDS and
Gender, recognising both are strongly interlinked. The
supported organisations undertake numerous activities addressing
the issues of Women, Girls and HIV&AIDS. For example, the Positive's
Women Network looks at empowering women with income generating programmes
and through education by extensive support groups and People Against
Human Abuse (PAHA) is empowering girls by having a girl's
soccer team and educating them on several skills.
One of PAHA's
other projects, supported by VSO-RAISA in 2003 though a Small Grant,
might serve as a good example of how our partners also aim to involve
men. Men Forums were established with the aim to mobilize men and
to educate them on masculinity, cultural beliefs, violence and HIV&AIDS.
Other objectives of the forums were addressing gender violence and
its link to HIV&AIDS, and empowering both men and women on issues
around their reproductive health and sexual rights. Four forums
were held and an average of 30 men attended each time. The participants
came from Mamelodi (a township outside Pretoria) and had various
backgrounds, some of them being local policemen.
According to
PAHA the forums have shown some positive behaviour change in the
community. Some examples are:
- A new vision
on masculinity and men are taking more responsibility for their
actions and behaviours.
- Both men
and women are getting empowered towards creating a heterogeneous
society devoid of the rigidities of traditions and cultural barriers.
- Women are
more expressive and confident in challenging exploitative and
uneven parameters within their relationships.
- More couples
are attending HIV/AIDS pre-test counselling, which helps to pre-empt
any violence whatever the outcome of the results.
- More men
are getting involved in support and care giving especially to
their fellow men.
VSO-RAISA has
also recently sponsored a Men's Conference organised by one
of its partner organisations ADAPT, Agisanang Domestic Abuse Prevention
and Training- Men's Programme. The conference is celebrating
10 years of democracy and also marking the sixteen days of activism
(advocating against Violence Against Women).
For more information,
please contact Carine Munting, RAISA Country Coordinator for South
Africa, at carine.munting@vsoint.org
"It
is a fact that the majority of carers are women. It is thus the
orphaned girl child who tends to give up school in order to care
for her brothers and sisters. It is girl children who generally
take on the burden of running the household after the death of
parents. This demonstrates one very tragic consequence of the
epidemic: AIDS is undermining the drive to bring women into the
economic, political and social life of the region. There is a
critical need to attend to the various factors that prevent girl
children from attending school and accessing their other rights."
- Misrak Elias, Country Representative UNICEF South Africa, speaking
at the 2004 RAISA regional conference '"Tomorrow's
future, today's choices" on Children affected by HIV
& AIDS.
ZAMBIA
VSO
RAISA Zambia has continued to strengthen and build capacity of partner
organizations by using different RAISA tools. For example workshops
were organised to support HIV & AIDS integration in grassroots
organizations working on women's issues. Acknowledging the situation
of both girls and boys infected and affected by HIV & AIDS, VSO
Zambia spent much time in the last months on follow-up activities
around the VSO-RAISA Regional Conference on Children affected by HIV
& AIDS, which was held in Pretoria in May this year. This conference,
called "Tomorrow's future, today's choices"
has continued to provide inspiration for the five youth participants
from Zambia that took part in the skills building workshops during
the conference. During these workshops the youths gained skills that
they have continued to nurture on exploring, particularly hero books
and play therapy.
Upon their return
from Pretoria the five young participants have continued meeting
monthly to share the experiences with mostly the community schools
that they attend. In their respective schools, they have continued
to share skills and as part of the district satellite activities
leading to World AIDS Day, the group has organized a 2 days workshop
for more than 20 young people coming from VSO partner organizations
providing non-formal education to children in difficult circumstances.
This workshop will provide an opportunity for the youth to utilize
their gained competence in the skills building exercises around
play therapy and memory work, which help children express emotions
that they may not feel safe sharing with adults. And at a time when
we reflect during the commemoration of World AIDS Day, these youngsters
will have the opportunity to share their stories with others and
teach them skills they acquired. Members of the team will at times
use very personal stories to raise people's awareness about
issues that affect our society and challenge their peers to explore
further and communicate more often.
The leading
facilitator of the workshop is Memory Phiri, a young and inspiring
young girl with a story to tell about her life. Memory has just
returned from Zimbabwe where she went to add to her skills at a
cross border workshop coordinated by Jonathan Morgan from the University
of Cape Town and part of the ten million-memory project (10MMP).
The theme for the workshop was 'Carrying forward knowledge
and lessons'. Memory said prior to the workshop that 'I
look forward to this workshop as it will give us an opportunity
not just to share our stories but to break new ground and make new
friends who will carry this work forward and help change people's
attitudes towards children especially those orphaned like us'.
After this workshop the group plans to hold a cross border initiative
with the five youth participants from Malawi which also attended
the RAISA regional conference. The 10 youngsters will then share
their experiences from the field and explore innovative ways to
reach out to more young people and carry this work forward in the
two countries.
For
more information, please contact Augustine Chella, RAISA Country
Coordinator for Zambia, at augustine.chella@vsoint.org
ZIMBABWE
For
several reasons women and girls today are the hardest hit by the HIV
& AIDS pandemic. Nearly 65% of all HIV positive people in Zimbabwe
between 15 and 49 years old are women. VSO-RAISA Zimbabwe works with
a number of partners focusing on women and girls, and one of its partners
is introduced here. The
local NGO Concern Zimbabwe is based in Masvingo Province. Concern,
with RAISA support through a Small Grant, has been working to make
communities more sensitive to the needs of girl children, and to
empower these girls by challenging cultural practices that disadvantage
them.
The Girl Child
HIV & AIDS Education and Support Initiative by Concern responds
to challenges girls face as a result of HIV & AIDS. Orphans,
particularly girls, are threatened with school dropouts to look
after siblings or sick parents. To address this problem Concern
introduced community education workshops, where community leaders,
school authorities and family heads were sensitized to the plight
of girl children which are taken for granted due to customs, traditions
and religious beliefs. These workshops assisted girl orphans to
have a direct interface with their traditional leaders. The workshops
identified cultural practices and policies within Masvingo communities
which are insensitive to the plight of the girl child. Girl orphans
were as a result of these workshops able to challenge ownership
patterns of livestock and inheritance. The traditional leaders also
pledged to identify cases of girl orphans either abused or not going
to school and make appropriate referrals for action.
Also with VSO-RAISA's
support, access to education by 800 girl orphans has been restored
as Concern is paying their school fees. Twenty girl child headed
households were provided with forty female goats to motivate their
caregivers by supplementing school fees payments.
For more information,
please contact Obrian Nyamucherera, RAISA Country Coordinator for
Zimbabwe, at vsozim@zol.co.zw
Resources
on Women, Girls, HIV & AIDS
- 'Gendering
AIDS: women, men, empowerment and mobilisation' VSO 2003.
This report can be downloaded from www.vso.org.uk
- www.genderandaids.org
UNIFEM web portal, Gender HIV & AIDS
- www.womenandaids.unaids.org
UNAIDS Global Coalition on Women and AIDS
- www.bridge.ids.ac.uk
linked to the Institute of Development Studies in the UK, excellent
site for gender resources
- www.eldis.org/gender/dossiers
Also linked to Institute of Development Studies, Eldis has set
up an online and dynamic guide to provide narrative and up to
date resources on key issues and debates on a specific development
theme.
Yebo is VSO-RAISA's
quarterly newsletter, informing partners and other stakeholders
about our activities and impact on regional, national and local
levels. Each issue is focussing on one HIV & AIDS related theme
RAISA is working on. For comments or questions about Yebo, please
contact the RAISA regional office
by email (vso-raisa@idasa.org.za)
or
by phone (+27 12 3203885).
For more information about RAISA, please visit our website: www.vso.org.uk/raisa
Visit
the VSO Zimbabwe fact sheet
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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