Women and Girls: Disproportionately Vulnerable to HIV/AIDS

While doing a little background reading before I leave, I read Stephen Lewis' Race Against Time. In one of his lectures, he discusses how in sub-Saharan Africa, women represent 60% of the people living with the virus. We have still been unable to overcome the disproportionate vulnerability of women to the virus. Not only is the prevalence of HIV infection highest among women and girls, but they also take on the responsibilities for caring for the sick and the orphaned, ontop of providing food and childcare for their own households. Very little seems to have been done to "protect them from sexual aggression and violence, ease their burdens or support their coping and caring efforts". There is a need for urgent action to respond to the pandemic's effects on women and girls; for these people, day-to-day is seen as a matter of life or death. There are countless millions with a death sentence hanging over their heads because of HIV/AIDS infections and poverty!

There is a constant struggle for women's human rights in Africa. As far as I can see, the governments in Africa have done very poorly in the protection of women's rights. The inequality between women and men is obscene and unjust! However, there are some non-governmental organizations that are struggling and putting up a fight for the status of women in their communities.

Kivulini Women’s Rights Organization

Kivulini Women’s Rights Organization is a registered Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) founded in 1999 based in Mwanza, Tanzania. Kivulini’s mission is to work with the community to advocate for women’s rights. Kivulini is intensifying its efforts on mobilizing communities to prevent domestic violence against women. This vision of creating violence free communities is linked with women’s economic empowerment to reduce dependency and contribute to family income. When a woman is aware of her rights in the community and is economically independent, she does not only improve her health and socio-economic position, but is also able to contribute more fully to the development of her community as a whole. Kivulini program efforts are contributing to The National Strategy for Economic Growth and Reduction of Poverty (MKUKUTA). Overall, Kivulini aims to break women in Mwanza from circle of poverty, violence and abuse.

For the past 7 years, Kivulini, in collaboration with the University of Western Ontario, has designed a project on production of probiotic yogurt that has started providing a new source of income for women in Mwanza, while contributing to the general health of children and adults. The Tanzanian National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR – Mwanza), is supporting the project.

Tukwamuane Women’s Group (TWG)
Tukwamuane is Swahili for "women working together to eliminate poverty". Twelve women ("Yogurt Mamas") from the Mwanza community formed this group to act as the main producers and distributors of the probiotic yogurt. Since WHE’s inauguration, Western's student interns have worked alongside these women to help develop the project further. Some of the mamas have studied business processes (Accounting, Financing etc.) through Kivulini and take care of the project records and profits from the yogurt.

After various stages of development and planning, the TWG is now liscenced as Non-Governmental Organization in Tanzania. They have come a long way since WHE began working with them in 2004. These hard-working women continue to provide inspiration and economic support for the local community. They have recieved a lot of attention from the Canadian and Tanzanian governments and were officially recognized by the Tanzanian government with an award for AIDS intervention work on Tanzanian Independence Day (December 9, 2008). The Tukwamuane Women's Group truly embodies the empowerment of women, which is vital to the continued development of communities devastated by AIDS and povery.