AIDS is a Gender Issue
The majority of new infections are in women. 67% of those living with HIV and AIDS in East & Southern Africa are women. Read more about The Rose Project's programmes targeted at helping women.
Women, for reasons of culture and tradition, find it difficult to negotiate safe sex particularly in strong male dominated regions. This applies even when the man is HIV positive. But much is happening in the area of education and awareness to address this, particularly by the women themselves.
Like many women Lamula is living with the stigma of being HIV positive. Her husband died of AIDS.
- Q: Why has AIDS spread and how is it spread in the community and in your family?
- A: The main problem for us women is our husbands. Because of their unfaithfulness and because they're never satisfied with their wives, this is how they infect us.
The Rose Project is funding projects aimed at mobilising and empowering women.
Likuni District, Lilongwe, Malawi
This programme supports the identification and promotion of positive cultural values at community level. It also addresses the sensitive issue of gender relations that are a burden to women and men and have a tendency to derail the progress in the fight against HIV.
The programme also reinforces activities that shield women from abuse at community level through the promotion and protection of human rights.
The primary aim of this programme is to support the healthcare of sex workers and also to offer alternative ways of supporting their families such as hairdressing, dressmaking and weaving.
Professor Elizabeth Ngugi is a lecturer in Community Health at the University of Nairobi by day. At night she travels around the brothels of Kibera settlements talking to sex workers and providing them initially with medical care and information and also offering them alternative ways to support their families.
This programme has reached 15,000 sex workers and has helped them to transform their lives.
According to the Kenyan authorities there is no such thing as sex work and therefore there is no need to allocate funds for this group!
Do you think differently? Take action. Support The Rose Project.
The Rose Project supports people affected by HIV or AIDS in Eastern & Southern Africa. It provides medical, nursing and pyscho-social care. It is named after Rose Atieno, a young Kenyan woman who was estimated to have been the 16 millionth person to die of AIDS.
Find out about projects funded by The Rose Project.
