Women and HIV/AIDS - A WOW! e-brief
WORLD NEIGHBORS AND HIV/AIDS PREVENTION, CARE AND SUPPORT
In World Neighbors East Africa, one of the primary concerns of the partner communities is HIV/AIDS. The first priority of World Neighbors in working with people living with HIV/AIDS is to improve their health as much as possible by providing access to anti-retroviral treatment and improving nutrition. Good nutrition can greatly improve the quality of life of those living with HIV/AIDS. World Neighbors aids in establishing kitchen gardens by facilitating the community to acquire the seeds of indigenous fruits and vegetables. World Neighbors provides dairy goats so HIV-positive people can have milk to provide additional protein, calories and vitamins and minerals. World Neighbors encourages recipients of the goats to pass on the offspring to others in the community to expand the improvement of nutrition. Furthermore, World Neighbors staff members provide nutrition information that is based on locally available foods and train local community health workers on good nutrition.
After the health and nutrition needs of those who are HIV-positive are addressed, World Neighbors then begins to focus on the dissemination of information about community health, especially regarding HIV/AIDS. World Neighbors accomplishes this in a variety of ways, such as by training community health workers and home-based caregivers on HIV/AIDS and other methods of providing education about transmission of the disease. In Tanzania, for example, World Neighbors works closely with the Ministry of Health in training community health workers. World Neighbors works to revise the Ministry of Health’s curriculum to better meet the needs of the communities. Home-based caregivers are community volunteers accredited by the government and who provide care for people living with HIV/AIDS. They offer support and counseling for HIV/AIDS patients, make sure patients get adequate nutrition and medical care, and train other caregivers. In addition to these ways of circulating information about the disease, World Neighbors supports the use of theater groups that consist mostly of young people interested in acting. The plays make use of traditional music and dance and use entertainment as a way to increase knowledge about prevention, testing, care and support.
In conjunction with improving education about HIV/AIDS, a top priority of World Neighbors is to identify which risks factors for HIV/AIDS transmission exist within a community, such as those listed in the previous section, and are connected to the prevalence of the disease in a specific region. After this process, which is completed with the help and involvement of community members and health workers, World Neighbors tries to address the cultural issues that affect the transmission and those living with HIV/AIDS. One way World Neighbors accomplishes this is by focusing on income generating activities. Providing women with more economic power gives them more ability to negotiate safer sex and sexual practices with their partner. Furthermore, in East Africa, World Neighbors has helped form health clubs in schools. The health clubs discuss safe-sex practices and the disadvantages of having multiple partners, which is particularly an issue in regions where polygamy is prevalent. World Neighbors works to create an environment in which saying “no” is a viable option for women and ensuring that safe sex is a priority both within polygamous and monogamous marriages and for single women.
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Another main focus of World Neighbors program is to provide support for people living with HIV/AIDS. World Neighbors accomplishes this by creating support groups, improving nutrition and bettering rural livelihoods. The support groups World Neighbors works with are voluntary and provide psychological support for people who are HIV-positive. In the groups, people share their experiences living with HIV/AIDS and encourage their family members and other community members to get tested.
Bettering rural livelihoods is another method in which World Neighbors supports people living with HIV/AIDS, and this is accomplished through the creation of income generating activities, fertilizer trees and jump planters. In East Africa, after a community has been sufficiently educated about the disease and the immediate needs of those living with HIV/AIDS have been addressed, World Neighbors works to offer income-generating to community members. World Neighbors encourages the creation of activities such as light-scale farming, basket weaving and horticulture. Income generating activities can also include the creation of savings and credit groups, the implementation of handicraft operations or selling produce. People sell their products and use the profits to purchase anti-retroviral drugs and food. World Neighbors helps ease the burden of agriculture by helping plant fertilizer trees. These are planted to loosen the soil to make planting easier, which greatly benefits people with HIV/AIDS who often have reduced energy. World Neighbors also provides jab planters, which are planting mechanisms that allow the person to plant seeds while standing because leaning over and kneeling is difficult if the person is not feeling well due to the virus.
The approaches taken by World Neighbors to reduce the transmission of HIV and alleviate the problems associated with the disease address several factors that contribute to its transmission and treatment. The programs focus on many different aspects associated with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, such as prevention, treatment and support. World Neighbors believes that in order to adequately address this community health issue, cultural, social and economic problems must all be acknowledged.
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Photo credits for this page (from top to bottom):
1. Photo of women in Kenya in their garden
2. Photo of women in Kenya cooking
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Women and HIV/AIDS: An Overview
Learn More and Get Involved
A WOW! e-Brief
Work of Women @ World Neighbors
November 2007
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