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Healthcare:
Helping women and girls
In many parts of Africa, as elsewhere in the world, the AIDS epidemic is aggravated by social and economic inequalities between men and women. Women and girls commonly face discrimination in terms of access to education, employment, credit, health care, land and inheritance. These factors can all put women in a position where they are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection. In sub-Saharan Africa, around 59% of those living with HIV are female.
Responsibility of care
Women and girls bearing the responsibility such as the responsibility of care for the sick and for affected children.In areas with few palliative care facilities, when a person becomes ill from AIDS the care is usually a woman’s responsibility. This care giving is usually in addition to many other tasks that women perform within the household, such as cooking, cleaning, and caring for the children and the elderly.
Caring for ill parents, children or husbands is unpaid and can increase a person’s workload by up to a third. Women often struggle to bring in an income whilst providing care and therefore many families affected by AIDS suffer from increasing poverty.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic also affects young girls and elderly women. Often households where both the husband and the wife are ill from AIDS, girls are usually the main care- givers, even if it means that they have to miss school. If both parents die then it tends to be the grandmothers, aunts or female cousins who then look after the AIDS orphans.
Women and children
Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) is an issue that directly affects women and at the same time increases the spread of HIV. MTCT occurs when an HIV positive woman passes the virus to her baby during pregnancy, labour and delivery, or breastfeeding. UNAIDS say that at the end of 2007 there were an estimated 2 million children (under 15 years) living with HIV, most of whom were infected by their mothers. A large number of these children will not live to adulthood.
Inequalities within the family
In some societies, women have few rights within sexual relationships and the family. Often men make the majority of decisions, such as whom they will marry and whether the man will have more than one sexual partner. This power imbalance means that it can be more difficult for women to protect themselves from getting infected with HIV. For example, a woman may not be able to insist on the use of a condom if her husband is the one who makes the decisions.
Marriage does not always protect a woman from becoming infected with HIV. Many new infections occur within marriage or long-term relationships as a result of unfaithful partners. In a number of societies, a man having more than one sexual partner is seen as the norm.
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Violence against women
Women who are victims of sexual violence are at a higher risk of being exposed to HIV. The lack of condom use and the forced nature of rape mean that women are immediately more vulnerable to HIV infection. One study of 1,366 South African women concluded that those women who were beaten or dominated by their partners were much more likely to become infected with HIV than women who were not.
Women’s inheritance and property rights
In many countries around the world, women do not have the same property rights as men. Especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, property is typically owned by men and even when married, women still do not have as many property rights as their husbands. Inheritance rights are just as discriminatory, as when a husband dies, his property often goes to his side of the family and not to his wife.
The denial of a woman’s inheritance and property rights can increase her vulnerability to HIV. Not being able to own property means that women have limited economic stability. This can lead to an increased risk of sexual exploitation and violence, as women may have to endure abusive relationships or resort to informal sex work for economic survival.
However, protecting women from HIV is not solely women's responsibility. Most women with HIV were infected by unprotected sex with an infected man. Preventing transmission is the responsibility of both partners, and men must play an equal role in this.
Increasing Education and Awareness
Education is one of the most effective tools in preventing HIV infections. That is why we in Project Africa join the Global Campaign for Education that suggests that if every child received a complete primary education, around 700,000 new HIV infections in young adults could be prevented every year.
Education is particularly important for protecting girls against HIV infection. Through our community education program we teach vital HIV prevention methods, such as condom use, having fewer sexual partners, and the importance of greater communication about HIV prevention between couples. Also, girls who frequently attend our Stars of Africa program are more likely to be able to make decisions about their sexual lives, are more independent, and are more likely to earn a higher income in the future. Increasing HIV/AIDS education can also help to reduce the stigma that people living with HIV/AIDS face. Eradicating stigma is important in the fight against HIV/AIDS because stigma can increase the vulnerability of a group that may already be at a higher risk of HIV infection. Sex workers, for example, are in many countries still both frowned on socially and criminalized. It is very difficult for these women to access the healthcare services they need in order to stay healthy if they risk arrest or punishment when their profession is known. It is important to reform sex workers by providing alternative sources of income. This is the objective of our Cottage Industry Program that women can create their own businesses and be economically empowered without engaging in risky sexual behavior.
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