Georgina Nakitari of Kenya is a valued member of the Vital Voices network, most recently participating in Rising Voices: Young Kenyan Women’s Leadership and Communications Training. Living as an HIV positive woman, Georgina was profiled by The Standard as a true crusader who has “taken a brave step by coming out in public about her status and reaching out to other infected women.” Georgina works as a social worker and supervisor at the Coptic Hope Center, where she is in charge of the adult clinic. Her inspiring story is featured in this article, “Crusader larger than AIDS virus,” The Standard.

On December 1, as the international community commemorates World AIDS Day, we turn our attention to the considerable impact that AIDS has on women and girls worldwide. This year, the theme of World AIDS Day is “Universal Access and Human Rights.” In a statement released by UNIFEM Executive Director Ines Alberdi, a recent report from the World Health Organization is cited in which research indicates “AIDS is the leading killer of women of reproductive age in poor and middle-income countries.” Alberdi goes on to say, “This is unacceptable at a time when HIV treatment is available.”

In a call for improved, targeted actions, Alberdi says that a health sector approach must be compounded by “an equally rigorous and well-financed effort to address the root causes of HIV…that lie within social, economic and political structures.” To this end, research must lend itself to a focus on gender and the different ways that AIDS affects men and women. Advancing gender equality is a central component of AIDS eradication efforts, says Alberdi:

“We all know that women’s vulnerability to HIV is closely connected to gender discrimination and the continued violation of women’s rights…HIV and AIDS and persistent gender inequality are mutually reinforcing crises; we must tackle them together to achieve lasting change.”

Women’s Rights Are at the Core of Addressing the AIDS Pandemic -UNIFEM

In the Radhapuram village in India, twenty HIV-positive women are securing self-sufficiency for the first time through a new farming cooperative.

The “We-Farm, Radhapuram” project is an initiative of the Suzlon Foundation (SF), a wind power company dedicated to social responsibility. In creating the first project of its kind in India, SF partnered with UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) and the National Positive Women’s Network (PWN+), an organization that strengthens the resources for HIV-positive women.

The women were given user rights to 46 acres of land including 152 coconut trees and a farmhouse. In August, the women harvested 1,700 coconuts and were able to put their earnings into a collective bank account. SF also provided the women with two professional farmers to teach them skills, like how to make organic fertilizer.

One farmer told IPS, “For the first time in our lives, we got an opportunity to mingle with other people. Before this, we had a huge inferiority complex. But now, when we see men’s skepticism about our ability to till the land, it gives us more incentive to do well.”

RIGHTS-INDIA: HIV-Positive Women Get User Rights to Till Land- IPS

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) recently released the ‘Global Consultation on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting’, in which the global trends and prevalence of FGM/C are examined. A World Health Organization estimate indicates that between 100 and 140 million girls worldwide have undergone some form of either practice, with the UN Children’s Fund estimating that 3 million girls are at risk of being mutilated or cut annually.

In consideration of legal provisions to protect against FGM/C, Faiza Jama Mohamed of Equality Now explains that the practice constitutes torture as a violation of fundamental human rights and in accordance with the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Despite the pervasiveness of FGM/C on the African continent, only 16 countries have enacted laws criminalizing the practice. Inconsistencies in defining FGM/C, as well as in sentencing for those convicted of the crime contribute to the perpetuation of the practice.

Examining the perceived function or reasoning behind FGM/C, the study finds that the practice is “linked to marriageability,” which families prefer and seek out for their daughters. The implications that this social pressure and perception has in preventative efforts leads advocates on the ground to “facilitate dialogue…reflect non-coercive and non-judgmental discussion,” and attempt to encourage a collective group decision to forego FGM/C.

Read the full report: Global Consultation on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting-UNFPA Report

In 1990, Veronica Khosa was a nurse to HIV/AIDS patients in South Africa, overwhelmed by a need that she was not equipped to attend to. Too many were without care, slipping through unnoticed by an ineffective healthcare system. This reality was unacceptable to Khosa, who decided to innovate an inadequate process and reorient care around a patient and the involvement of their family through a home-based nursing model.

By engaging the family and friends of an HIV/AIDS patient, Khosa teaches loved ones to care for the ill and even assist in their rehabilitation. Her work involves an entire community in the provision of care, challenging common conceptions that would relegate patients to overcrowded hospitals and clinical environments. Khosa has touched the lives of thousands of chronically and terminally ill patients in South Africa’s Gauteng province, even influencing regional policy within her nation; the Gauteng provincial government has adopted and implemented Khosa’s model of home-based care. Recognized nationally and even internationally, by bodies such as the World Health Organization, Khosa has been an Ashoka Fellow since 2000.

Veronica Khosa carries out her work with the belief that “everyone is qualified to care for others,” as Ashoka describes. It is this belief that has innovated healthcare in her region, and led Khosa to affect positive change for thousands.

Veronica Khosa-Ashoka

When the Taliban regime took control in 1996, women in Afghanistan faced a rollback of their rights, among them, access to health care. Pashtoon Azfar is dedicated to restoring these rights.

Ms. Azfar told the New York Times,

Everywhere then, girls went to school. Women’s rights before the Taliban were the same as in Western countries. Women had the right to vote.

Her work focuses on maternal health, a significant issue since Afghanistan has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world. In total, 26,000 women die every year while pregnant or giving birth.

To bring attention to this critical issue, Ms. Azfar attended a congressional briefing sponsored by the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues and Women’s Policy, Inc. on July 14 entitled “Maternal Health in Afghanistan: How Can We Save Women’s Lives?”

An extraordinarily dedicated midwife, she directs the Institute of Health Sciences in Afghanistan, works for a nonprofit group from Johns Hopkins University that focuses on women and children’s health, and presides over the Afghan Midwives Association.

Her goal is to reconstruct the midwife profession and save the thousands of mothers and children that die as a result of absent health care.

Ms. Azfar said,

Just five years ago we started the reconstruction of this profession. These midwives, they are champions. They are my heart.

In War and Isolation, a Fighter for Afghan Women - NYT
Kaiser News

Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Information Dissemination Services (SAFAIDS) recently published a report analyzing the relationship between culture, women’s rights and HIV/AIDS in Africa, finding that the epidemic is impacting significantly more women than men on the continent. Findings indicate that 60 percent of HIV positive adults in Africa are women, a fact largely attributed to “women’s lower socio-economic, political and cultural status,” as AllAfrica news reports.

The correlation between an absence of women’s rights and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS has been widely acknowledged, yet the report maintains that little has been done to address the direct causation of the two issues. In an effort to create culturally relevant materials, SAFAIDS has distributed a casebook documenting the best practices of six Zimbabwean communities, intending to “help mitigate the HIV crisis through a cultural and gender perspective.”

There is a call for a concerted effort of gender-focused policies to address HIV/AIDS and there is much work to be done, as noted in the SAFAIDS report:

“While it is universally understood and accepted that traditional and cultural ideologies and practices that promote male dominance and the marginalization of women are key drivers of the epidemic in Africa, not much is known about how to effectively address those practices in a way that will increase gender equality and reduce vulnerability to HIV for African women.”

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UNIFEM and the European Commission (EC) are joining in an effort to advance the third millennium development goal, namely the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.  In a three-year program to be implemented in Rwanda, Kenya, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea and Cambodia, the agencies will “focus on promoting the leadership of HIV-positive women’s groups and gender equality advocates, to ensure that gender equality priorities are identified, realized and budgeted in national HIV and AIDS responses,” as UNIFEM reports.

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Released Monday, June 15th, the 2009 Report of the Global Campaign for the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDG) focuses on the areas of aid that have made the least progress. Goals 4 and 5, which aim to reduce child mortality by two-thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters by 2015, respectively, are the furthest behind of the goals that were laid out. Continue Reading »

This past May, lawmaker and doctor Chris Baryomunsi introduced a measure for the criminalization of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Uganda’s Parliament.  Support has been far-reaching for the proposed law as women’s rights activists, health professionals, and government members including Parliament’s deputy speaker and the State Minister for Gender and Cultural Affairs have united to endorse the bill.  If approved, the law would criminalize the practice of FGM and offenders would face a 10-15-year term of imprisonment. 

FGM results in devastating maternal and child mortality rates, increased incidence of HIV/AIDS infection, and poses a mortal risk to the health of women and girls as the traditional rite itself often leads to fatal bleeding.  A recent and dramatic rise in the practice was witnessed in the December season of the initiation rite, when 500 girls were subjected to mutilation, a grave contrast to the 90 women victims of 2006.

Baryomunsi commented on the development that compelled him to propose the law: “In December, I felt such pain and sadness that women, some unwillingly and others willingly, were subjected to crude methods of having their bodies cut when there is no medical benefit.  I’ve talked to women who are maimed and crippled because of FGM.  As a leader and member of parliament, I wanted to do something to stop the abuse of women’s rights in Uganda.”

The measure is expected to win the two-thirds majority needed for its passage into law by this fall.

Ugandan Physician-Lawmaker Moves to Criminalize FGM -Women’s eNews