 |
 |
| Statement – Activities relating to HIV positive Women |
2006-01-12 09:00:00 <GENDER-AIDS> |
|
 |
|
|
Statement – Activities relating to HIV positive Women
International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS
************************************
Here below is a summary report of ICW's Current and recent Treatment Access Activities in relation to HIV positive women in Africa, L America, AsiaPacific and Europe. Many reports of these activities, listed below, (and including this summary report), are already on the ICW website and more reports will very soon appear on the website, once they have been finalised with the funders. These reports are based on many personal accounts of treatment access barriers faced by many HIV positive women in different parts of the world, and recommendations drawn up by the same women in response to these personal experiences. If you would like to receive regular updates about new ICW reports, as they are published, please register on the ICW website.
International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS
Our Work on Access to Care Treatment and Support 12/05
Access to Care, Treatment and Support (or ACTS) is one of ICWÂ’s three key strategy focus areas. All our work is linked to this and it is relevant to all our work. Below we highlight some of our major activities in relation to ACTS for HIV positive women around the world.
THE FACTS:
Currently there are 19 million women living with HIV/AIDS in the world, of whom only a fraction have access to treatment.
Countries still do not produce figures disaggregated by sex and age (although thanks to pressure from ICW and others, through the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, WHO is now committed to amending this vital information gap).
Last year around 1 million women died, because of lack of access to ARVs.
This means that not only did these women lose their lives, but many children became orphaned. Without a mother their vulnerability and risk levels have increased dramatically.
Many women face diverse and complex social and economic barriers to treatment, exacerbated by their being women. Most service providers are unaware of these barriers. Many women do not dare to access services in their own communities or neighbourhoods, for fear of stigma, not just against themselves, but against their family members also. Even women who have started on ARVs can often not continue on them, if they have no independent income. For instance, they may have no means to afford continuing to pay for the drugs themselves, or related tests, or transport costs. They may have to account for their time or expenses to their husbands or inlaws. They may feel guilty that they are spending funds on themselves when their relatives are sick. These are just a few of the many issues which ICW members have described which act as barriers to their access to the critical care, support and treatment which all HIV positive women need. Below is a diagram which illustrates some minimum requirements, identified by our members, which could reduce brriers to treatment access.
Table: Minimum Requirements for womenÂ’s treatment access at community level. The table is like the wheel of a bicycle, with spokes around it. The centre of the wheel states: Treatment access for women. The spokes of the wheel list the following barriers which, if not present, make access for many positive women extremely difficult or impossible:
- Confidentiality/privacy/community support
- Good staff training and attitudes
- Access to OI and STI control and FP
- Permission from partner, inlaws (to leave the home and normal duties)
- Free blood tests, drugs etc.
- Costs of child care, lost income time
- Food
- Guilt if other family members are sick
- Travel time and costs
- Peer information, advice, support
AREAS of FOCUS
Our Global Advocacy Officer, Beri Hull, coordinates our work on access to care treatment and support (appointed 04). In this capacity, Beri represents ICW on the UNAIDS Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, where ICW coconvenes, with WHO, the Access to Treatment arm (http://womenandaids.unaids.org/). However, all our staff are involved in this area as it is integral to all aspects of our work. Our main contributions to the field are:
- A global picture;
- A gendered understanding of access to, use and impact of treatment;
- An emphasis on the link between sexual and reproductive health and rights and access to, use and impact of treatment;
- A focus on marginalised HIV positive women including young women, rural women and injecting drug users;
- An understanding of the importance of care and support, the quality of treatments and information as well as treatment for opportunistic infections and coinfections.
The methods we use include advocacy, capacity building (for health care workers, HIV positive women and policymakers) and information provision. Examples are described in more detail below.
ONGOING ADVOCACY WORK
ICW members are involved in a number of initiatives and organisations focusing on treatment. For example:
- ICW is now the coconvening agency (with WHO) for the treatment and care arm of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS (GCWA).
- Over the next months we continue to support the development of ongoing collaborations with INGOs, HIV/AIDS organisations, the media, and the corporate and other sectors through a new initiative - Sofia. Sofia brings together pioneering women from different sectors to work together to promote and support the rights of HIV positive women, including ACTS.
ICW PROJECTS
Women and ChildrenÂ’s Collaborative Fund for Treatment Literacy in Africa. The Tides Foundation/Collaborative Fund have invited ICW to coordinate a new fund of US$225,000 for treatment literacy initiatives for women and children in Africa. Beri and our Regional Coordinators organised a treatment preparedness skills building workshop focusing on Women, Families and Children 28th, 30th November 05 Kampala Uganda. This was attended by 60 ICW members from 15 different countries from East, West and Southern Africa.
Mapping of womenÂ’s experiences of access to care, treatment and support through civil society organisations. (Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania). Supported by WHO for work until December 05. WHO is supporting ICW to map positive women's experiences of access to care and treatment through civil society organisations (CSOs) in three countries The findings will contribute to advocacy for increased political support and resources for CSOs providing access to care, treatment and support. The project provides a gendered and HIV positive womenÂ’s perspective, to complement a mapping and database of CSOs providing treatment being produced by SIDACTION.
Silent Voices. Carmen is coordinating this project which involves community research and advocacy training for HIV positive women in London who are current or former injection drug users. The UK component is part of an international project to research and advocate on the priorities of HIV positive women injection drug users, including treatment.
Advocacy mapping and training on Access to Care, Treatment and Support, and Sexual and Reproductive Rights, Swaziland and South Africa. ICW joined forces with the POLICY project and 40 HIV positive women from Swaziland and South Africa to develop an advocacy agenda on sexual and reproductive health rights, and access to care, treatment and support for women living with HIV/AIDS. The process began with an assessment of the concerns and experiences of HIV positive women and the policy and institutional environment in both countries. Staff from ICW and POLICY and the 40 women from Swaziland and South Africa then met in Durban in June of this year to identify priority issues for our advocacy training and strategy. The training and advocacy planning took place in August with the same 40 women. We now have 7 exciting action plans that the 40 participants, with support from ICW staff, will aim to implement over the coming months. We also aim to develop and implement a broader advocacy strategy in both countries.
Young WomenÂ’s Dialogues - South Africa and Swaziland 04. These two dialogues have brought together young women living with HIV and AIDS from eight countries, namely Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The dialogue provided a safe
space for young women to share experiences about the challenges of HIV and AIDS and to develop advocacy campaigns for highlighting the gender and human rights based challenges faced by participants in each of their countries. The Southern Africa dialogue was followed by a oneday consultation to share information on the WHO 3 by 5 Initiative, the implications for women, and the role of women in this and other treatment initiatives, and to identify solutions to ensure that womenÂ’s access to treatment is guaranteed.
Monitoring Access to Care, Treatment and Support, Sexual and Reproductive Rights, and Gender Violence, under UNGASS, Abuja and GIPA commitments in Swaziland and Lesotho. Workshops with HIV positive women in each country have produced a monitoring tool which women living with HIV/AIDS can use to monitor implementation of national commitments to womenÂ’s access to care, treatment and support, sexual and reproductive rights, and gender violence. The tool has been used in several ICW projects since then and money has been secured to conduct four training workshops in Swaziland on using the tool.
UK Network of HIV positive women. Funded by the Big Lottery. Among other areas the Network will research, provide information and advocate around ACTS including appropriate treatment and care for asylum seekers.
PUBLICATIONS
- ICW News includes several articles in each issue on ACTS;
- A Positive WomenÂ’s Survival Kit - includes sections and fact sheets on PMTCT and sexual health;
- ICW Vision paper on ACTS to aid our members in their advocacy work;
- Visibility, Voices and Visions: A Call for Action from HIV positive women to policy makers. This document has a section on ACTS;
- Background paper for WHO on the experiences of HIV positive women and men accessing treatment and testing services (forthcoming);
- Training curriculum for health care workers on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of HIV positive women. This work is being conducted in partnership with gender health (forthcoming).
- Treatment Literacy and Advocacy Workshop, South Africa report
- Position Statement: Injecting Drug Users and Access to HIV Treatment 96 (The Global Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (GNP -) and ICW) available in English, Spanish and Russian.
- Buenos Aires Declaration on Women and AIDS, 04. (www.icwlatina.org)
- HIV human rights directory for Latin American Women 05. (www.icwlatina.org)
- Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine/ICW joint paper on effects of free treatment access on women (forthcoming)
- Oh This One is Infected: Human Rights Abuses of HIV positive women in the AsiaPacific Region (including treatment accessexperiences) (jointly with APNPW)
- La Maison de nos rEAves : HIV positive womenÂ’s experiences in Francophone Africa (ICW workshop report)
Articles include:
- Generics in Argentina: a test still to be passed
- Pharmacists Listen to HIV Positive Women - Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association/ICW joint paper
- 3 by 5 and HIV positive women
- Linked services and HIV positive women
- Microbicides and HIV positive women
Presentations:
- Beri Hull at Concordia University on PEPFAR92s effect on positive women
http://cjournal.concordia.ca/journalarchives/2005-06/oct_27/005239.shtml
- G8 at the UK House of Commons: APPGA
http://www.appg-aids.org.uk/Meetings_Minutes/June_2005_G8.htm
- Commonwealth PeopleÂ’s Forum, Malta:
http://www.para55.org/reports/22November05/MeetingPresentationsMaltaNov05.htm
- Gender Poverty, HIV and TB - powerpoint presentation at RESULTS Symposium at London School of Hygiene, June 05.
For others, see www.icw.org
Press Releases:
- ICW Response to WHO 3 by 5, Dec 04 Progress Report Equal numbers does not mean equal access
- ICW Response to WHO 3 by 5, June 05
- Bolivian HIV positive advocates campaign for drugs which will save lives
- HIV positive advocates from Burkina Faso campaign foraccess to treatment
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
Website: We have continued to keep the website up to date with postings from ICW members, staff and trustees, and regular additions of new publications and links on SRHRs and ACTS. Most of the above mentioned materials are on the ICW website 96 www.icw.org.
Eforum for ICW members: This started in February. The eforum is a useful way for over 100 ICW members around the world to share their work and to feed back on thematic issues. Recent discussions have included membersÂ’ experiences of ACTS, including, for instance, genital herpes prophylaxis and treatment; and experiences with the female condom. The eforum discussions provide a consultation and communication mechanism for members, and feed into ICW92s policy submissions and advocacy work. There is a report of part of the discussion around ACTS from this egroup on the ICW website also.
International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW)
International Support Office,
Unit 6, Building 1, Canonbury Yard, 190a New North Road,
London N1 7BJ, United Kingdom,
Telephone: 44 7704 0606
Fax: 44 7704 8070
Website: www.icw.org
---------
Stay Connected - Speak your world!
A posting from Gender-AIDS (gender-aids@eforums.healthdev.org)
To submit a posting, send to gender-aids@eforums.healthdev.org
For anonymous postings, add the word "anon" to the subject line
To join, send a blank message to join-gender-aids@eforums.healthdev.org
To leave, send a blank email to leave-gender-aids@eforums.healthdev.org
For details of how to access discussion archives: http://www.healthdev.org/eforums/gender-aids
You are currently subscribed to Gender-AIDS as: %%emailaddr%%
---------
Gender-AIDS is a global eForum that provides a platform for information sharing, dialogue, discussion and debate on gender and HIV/AIDS.
Gender-AIDS is coordinated by the Health & Development Networks eForums Team (HDN, www.hdnet.org) with the support of Development Cooperation Ireland (DCI, www.dci.gov.ie).
The views expressed in this forum do not necessarily reflect those of HDN or DCI.
Reproduction welcomed provided HDN is informed of usage and source is cited as follows: Gender-AIDS eForum 2005: gender-aids@eforums.healthdev.org
|  |
|
|
|
|
