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HIV/Aids women's treatment literacy toolkit launched
The Herald (Zimbabwe)
June 21, 2006

http://www1.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=5262&cat=1&livedate=6/21/2006

SAFAIDS, in conjunction with the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and ActionAid International, on Monday launched the first ever women's treatment literacy toolkit, giving practical information on anti-retroviral treatment (ART) to women, girls and those supporting them.

The kit, a simple, user-friendly, and clear guideline in English, Shona and Ndebele, is designed to help its users make informed decisions about HIV/Aids prevention, care, support and treatment.

While making ART available seems to be the most important use of the kit, SAfAIDS said it was equally important to ensure that those on ART - in this case the women - were able to understand the basics of being on ART.

Illustrated with diagrams, pictures, fact sheets, posters, activity cards, a calendar, a brochure, an audiocassette and lists of additional resource materials, the toolkit would be equally useful for low literacy populations as well as those with visual impairment, it said.

"SAfAIDS has recognised that rolling out anti-retroviral therapy is not about availing anti-retroviral drugs but a complex exercise whose planning should adequately address special treatment concerns of girls and women.

"They include adherence, women-specific opportunistic infections, effects of treatment their biological (physical and emotional) lifecycle and reproductive and sexual health and choices, post-exposure prophylaxis in view of rampant gender-based violence and PMTCT Plus programmes."

As part of the comprehensive rollout process, the organisation had also organised a series of interactive workshops to train women's ART educators across the southern Africa region.

In a statement, SAfAIDS said the workshops would equip and empower participants to be better advocates in the area of women's treatment issues as a sound response to gender neutral and insensitive HIV/Aids treatment responses in communities of practice

They would also provide a platform for harmonising the uniqueness of the SAfAIDS Women's Treatment Literacy Toolkit with country specific treatment rollout efforts.

"Participants will be provided with relevant and adequate knowledge and materials that they can utilise to educate and empower others in their families, religious circles, workplace, social and peer groups.

"It is also our hope that the toolkit will act as a vehicle for mobilising communities to influence decision-makers towards protecting and promoting the HIV and Aids treatment related rights of women in their constituencies," SAfAIDS said.

These efforts would complement Government, civil society and multilateral agencies in their endeavours to scale up treatment literacy for women in Zimbabwean communities.

The Women's Treatment Literacy Toolkit was also launched and received with tremendous enthusiasm at the 10th AWID International Forum on Women's Rights and Development in Thailand, October 2005.

It was launched again at the 14th International Conference on HIV/Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) in Nigeria, December 2005.

Rolling out the toolkit is meant to empower women in communities with accurate and relevant information to enable them to make informed decisions in terms of accessing and demanding their rights to full participation in anti-retroviral treatment programmes

It is also hoped that it would fortify the women's coping mechanisms in adhering to ART, and their ability to support their counterparts within the same continuum of care.

The toolkit will be rolled out countrywide during the course of this week.

Visit the SAfAIDS fact sheet
Visit the ActionAid International Zimbabwe fact sheet

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