FOCUS ON HIV/AIDS
In this section:
Natsios, Tobias Say U.S. Leads World AIDS Fight
Women Focus of World AIDS Day
Natsios, Tobias Say U.S. Leads World AIDS Fight
The mounting rates of HIV/AIDS infection among women—especially
in Africa where they face social and economic inequality—sparked
a decision to dedicate this year’s World AIDS Campaign,
which culminates on World AIDS Day December 1, to gender inequality
and AIDS.
“Today, 60 percent of all people in sub-Saharan Africa
with HIV/AIDS are women,” said Dr. Kathleen Cravero,
deputy director of UNAIDS, the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS,
at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Nov.
10.
“Getting HIV from older boyfriends, or unfaithful husbands,
or through forced marriages all stem from one stark reality:
that women lack control over their bodies and their daily
lives and lack the tools, resources, and support they need
to change their situations,” Cravero said.
“If we don’t expand our concept of what prevention
means and make our strategies more relevant for women and
girls, time, energy, and countless lives will be lost,”
she added.
In South Africa, girls make up 75 percent of those infected
with HIV. In Kenya, there are 45 young women with the virus
for every 10 young men with HIV.
Dr. Anne Peterson, USAID Assistant Administrator for Global
Health, said she came to understand the issue of female vulnerability
in Kenya in the 1980s when women would knock on her door and
ask what they could do to protect themselves from their husbands.
The husbands had just come back from Nairobi, and the women
knew they had been with prostitutes and might have contracted
the AIDS virus, she said. But the wives were powerless to
protect themselves—physically, socially, or legally.
Young schoolgirls, she explained, also were at the mercy
of men if they wanted to pass their school exams.
“If women had more options, the option to choose marriage
rather than have it be forced upon them, to decide when and
with whom they have sex, to negotiate condom use with their
partners, to live their lives free from violence, and to earn
incomes adequate to feed their families, then their ability
to protect themselves from HIV might be real,” Cravero
said.
A UNAIDS coalition—the Global Coalition on Women and
AIDS, which was launched earlier this year by an informal
group of 10 partners—has designed a new program to deal
with gender inequalities characteristic of many African countries
and make women more autonomous in family and community life.
In addressing the five key issues for women—domestic
violence, property rights, access to healthcare, female-controlled
HIV prevention methods, and access to education—the coalition
is working to pass laws that make rape and domestic violence
serious crimes, protect women’s property rights, and
provide access to free legal aid.
Women Focus of World AIDS Day
The mounting rates of HIV/AIDS infection among women—especially
in Africa where they face social and economic inequality—sparked
a decision to dedicate this year’s World AIDS Campaign,
which culminates on World AIDS Day December 1, to gender inequality
and AIDS.
“Today, 60 percent of all people in sub-Saharan Africa
with HIV/AIDS are women,” said Dr. Kathleen Cravero,
deputy director of UNAIDS, the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS,
at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Nov.
10.
“Getting HIV from older boyfriends, or unfaithful husbands,
or through forced marriages all stem from one stark reality:
that women lack control over their bodies and their daily
lives and lack the tools, resources, and support they need
to change their situations,” Cravero said.
“If we don’t expand our concept of what prevention
means and make our strategies more relevant for women and
girls, time, energy, and countless lives will be lost,”
she added.
In South Africa, girls make up 75 percent of those infected
with HIV. In Kenya, there are 45 young women with the virus
for every 10 young men with HIV.
Dr. Anne Peterson, USAID Assistant Administrator for Global
Health, said she came to understand the issue of female vulnerability
in Kenya in the 1980s when women would knock on her door and
ask what they could do to protect themselves from their husbands.
The husbands had just come back from Nairobi, and the women
knew they had been with prostitutes and might have contracted
the AIDS virus, she said. But the wives were powerless to
protect themselves—physically, socially, or legally.
Young schoolgirls, she explained, also were at the mercy
of men if they wanted to pass their school exams.
“If women had more options, the option to choose marriage
rather than have it be forced upon them, to decide when and
with whom they have sex, to negotiate condom use with their
partners, to live their lives free from violence, and to earn
incomes adequate to feed their families, then their ability
to protect themselves from HIV might be real,” Cravero
said.
A UNAIDS coalition—the Global Coalition on Women and
AIDS, which was launched earlier this year by an informal
group of 10 partners—has designed a new program to deal
with gender inequalities characteristic of many African countries
and make women more autonomous in family and community life.
In addressing the five key issues for women—domestic
violence, property rights, access to healthcare, female-controlled
HIV prevention methods, and access to education—the coalition
is working to pass laws that make rape and domestic violence
serious crimes, protect women’s property rights, and
provide access to free legal aid.
This article was written by Emily Harter of the State
Department Washington File.
Back to
Top ^
|
