Is this possible? Could a community, a generation or a gender honestly believe that women who contract HIV or are raped brought it upon themselves? I am at a loss on how best to report on this subject so let’s start with the facts.

21-year old Regina Joseph was beaten by a group of men on the street of Tanzania’s Mkinga District and forced to remove her clothes because it was their way of “punishing her for allegedly dressing in an alluring way with the intention of passing on the HIV virus.” (They had no knowledge of her HIV status).
Community health workers in Mkinga are trying to change the methods the male elders of their community are using to fight HIV. The elders believe the best way to reduce the spread of HIV is to go back to their ancient cultural values and they are encouraging their communities to punish “inappropriately” dressed women. They go on to say that men would not stray from their wives if women dressed more plainly which in turn would reduce the cases of new HIV infections.

Strong moral values are an essential part of a healthy community, however, all data suggests that how a woman dresses has nothing to do with the spread of HIV. Men must be brought into the dialogue to understand and accept their role in perpetuating this deadly disease In the U.S. we would not tolerate this type of punishment nor would we excuse a gender-based hate crime of this nature. Could you imagine your daughter, niece or sister being accosted on the street the way Regina was? It is a travesty that this example has to demonstrate the enormous lack of women’s rights in Africa. The stigmas associated with AIDS are still tremendous, and many women in parts of Africa are treated like outcasts when they are only “believed” to have HIV. When they actually do contract the disease they lose their jobs and their ability to support their families.

Education is the key to reducing HIV infection and cases of discrimination against women. If you are like me and stories like Regina’s leave you feeling as though you must make a difference, you can support Just Like My Child’s successful program to teach men and women in rural communities about human, children’s and women’s rights through our life-empowering program, Project Justice. We need your help. Please make a difference by visiting: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=26195&Itemid=108

Click here to read the full article about Regina Joseph.

African women in their early 20s represent the largest group of the adult population infected with HIV. One of the causes is that their sexual partners refuse to wear condoms. This refusal is often a death sentence for the female partner. So how can infections be reduced among these women? Some might say that education is the key. The education exists, but often the women lack the power to influence their partner’s choices. African women have not had much control over the prevention of HIV, but now there is hope.

South African scientists released exciting results of a clinical trial that a new vaginal gel containing antiretroviral drugs offers women a strong level of protection and a greater degree of control against HIV infection.

Conducted in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province by Prof Salim Abdool Karim and his wife Quarraisha, the clinical trial results showed that using the gel reduced the risk of HIV infection by 39 per cent overall among women, but for those who used it most consistently the protection rate was 54 per cent. It is forecasted that over the next 20 years, the gel could prevent as many as 1.3 million new infections and 800,000 deaths in South Africa.

The scientists are working to conduct the third and final stage of the trial, which is estimated to take “a number of years” to complete.

The effectiveness of this protective gel is very encouraging news for the HIV epidemic in South African and for the opportunity for women to have more control over preventing the disease.

The reality of the situation is that although the study was done on a large portion of rural African women, the challenge throughout much of Africa, is that often there is a long delay between breakthroughs like this and its distribution throughout the rural communities where it is needed most.

As I’ve often said, the devil is in the details in Africa. We’ve had anti-retro-viral drugs to combat AIDS for years now, yet the education, investment, and distribution of the drugs is an intense process. It requires deep commitment on the part of the communities on the ground and the aid organizations which finance and distribute them. We need to commit ourselves to making these types of breakthroughs accessible not just in the urban areas. Yes, education is important, but often access for all is the key to the exciting results that are possible.

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, there is a stigma in Uganda surrounding families with HIV which results in joblessness and poverty. The more women who can prevent contracting HIV, the better their family’s chances to be self reliant.

For those families who have already contracted HIV, Just Like My Child Foundation along with the Bishop Asili Hospital is helping them become self-sufficient through a micro-enterprise program called Project Grace. To learn more about Project Grace, go to my previous post Project Grace: Achieving Self Reliance in Uganda (link) and watch the inspiring video.

For more details about the study, read the full article here.

You are young, have a family with small children and have contracted HIV.  You cannot work because of the illness or find employment because of the stigma associated with HIV so you are unable to provide for your family. You live in a rural community in on one of the poorest continents. But now, you’ve been given a second chance because you are receiving treatment for AIDS, and you’re feeling stronger, more capable – ready to go back to work. Because of the impact of the illness, your life is in shambles. You have to start all over again. What do you do?  What are your days like?  Do you have a compelling future?

For thousands of families in Uganda this is their life.  This is not a hypothetical situation.  So how do they begin to make a successful transformation?  The answer: With their own businesses.

The solution is not a matter of funds it is a matter of self-reliance.  Imagine being given the tools to create, manage and profit from your own business when there are no other opportunities available.  Now what are your days like?  Do you have a compelling future?

Just Like My Child Foundation is making microenterprise a reality for many families in Uganda through Project GRACE. Microenterprise has emerged as one of the most powerful ways to empower those living in poverty. Just Like My Child worked together with the people in the communities they serve and asked the question: “what do you need to empower yourself, to take the next step in life?” The answer was Project GRACE: Guiding Resources and Creating Empowerment in the most needy communities

Project GRACE provides a small loan (poultry or livestock) together with intensive training to healthy, self-motivated individuals with HIV to create a self-sustaining business that will support their families and send their children to school. They learn how to raise and shelter the animals while budgeting and setting prices for their goods at market.  They are taught how to use their garden and livestock together in sustainable and environmentally healthy ways. The gardens help feed the animals, and the animals provide natural fertilizer for the garden.

Each of the participants help to expand the program in their communities by donating two of their own animal’s offspring back to Bishop Asili’s Hospital in rural Uganda so that another family can become self-reliant.  It is a cycle of transformation rather than a cycle of poverty.

Project GRACE participants support each other and work together to succeed.  They are role models for other members in their community. They encourage others to be tested for HIV at Bishop Asili, raising awareness and hope for others to overcome the virus. By working together, they move closer to eradicating a stigma widely held in Uganda towards individuals with HIV/AIDS.

$300 provides an entire family of 6 with a complete sustainable business. Invest TODAY in Just Like My Child and help us empower communities to achieve self-sustenance and break the cycle of poverty.

To learn more about Project GRACE, watch the inspiring video at the top of this post.

Three years ago, maternal deaths at the hospital were astronomical due to lack of proper medical care, surgery equipment, medical doctors, and an ambulance to transport women who were experiencing obstetrical emergencies. While no one knows for sure what the true rate of maternal mortality is in the villages deep in the bush, the hospital reports a marked improvement in outcomes for women who DO reach the hospital in time.

When I first arrived at Bishop Asili,Hospital in 2006, women were turned away from the hospital by the dozen because there was no way to serve them. Today, a gleaming new surgery centre, trained medical doctors, and adequate instruments for C-sections and laparatomies have turned tragic stories into stories of joy and hope. Women and children who would have otherwise died are now emerging from surgeries with healthy babies, hope, a community that supports them, and a future filled with hope. It’s a miracle to watch.

Simple interventions are what have changed the staggering statistics of maternal mortality.

Some of the smoked delicacies at Ralleytown Marketplace, Monrovia, Liberia

Well here I am in the most beautiful suite in the Cape Hotel in Liberia which I was moved to after two nights of being in a room with a broken air conditioner with exposed, leaky PVC piping and two hugantical roaches that fly! The humidity is just at about 2700% and sleeping with closed doors and windows hoping for the AC to work resulted in my waking up with water running down my face in thick drops. This water turned out to be my own sweat running in my eyes.

A little girl exhausted from a full day at school with no food, no books, no qualified teacher

This fabulous suite I am in now has one small problem: the springs in the king-sized bed are just about coming through the mattress and my extra-skinny hip bones which I’ve managed to achieve in four days of running around without eating much are literally black and blue from tossing and turning on them. I don’t know how all the presidents who supposedly slept in this same bed did it. Maybe it was the extra FAT padding that seems to be a sign of wealth around here.

It’s not even 5 am and I am STARVING. Remind me to never travel without some nutritious snacks. I’m so hungry that I could eat some of the piles of smoked MONKEY that the ladies in the marketplaces were selling today. I inadvertently consumed only about 500 calories today. My husband, Mike, would be eating the walls right now.

I am just finishing the book, The House at Sugar Beach, which is about a Liberian woman who is the descendant of a rich former slave family and her lost childhood (Helene Cooper). I am just at the point where she’s returning from 25 years in the U.S where she is now a journalist for the Wall Street Journal. She relates the amazing stories of coming home just at the end of 20 years of civil war and the unbelievable devastation of the country where boys were taken as young as six-years-old and tanked up on heroine and amphetamines to blow the faces off their parents and other close relatives.

This after spending the evening watching Pray the Devil Back to Hell (http://praythedevilbacktohell.com/v2/) with the marketplace women who literally started the women’s  peace movement in this country.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf greets a marketplace woman after the showing of Pray the Devil Back to Hell

I’ve attached some pics from the day including some shots of President Ellen about two feet away from me right before I inadvertenly knocked the glasses off her secret service guy who graciously did not pin me down and kill me.

Vivian Glyck

Gini Reticker, Director, Abigail Disney, producer of Pray the Devil Back to Hell and Vivian Glyck. I believe with all my being that this movie is the most important movie of the decade and the whole WORLD MUST SEE it. Please visit http://praythedevilbacktohell.com/v2/

President Ellen of Liberia and President Halonen of Finland sign Monrovia Agreement

Two Liberian women represent some of the stunning fashions seen at the event.

Foundation for Women welcomes Just Like My Child Founder, Vivian Glyck

After about 30 hours of ridiculous travel, I found my host in Liberia, Deborah Lindholm, founder, Foundation for Women.

I was brought to meet a wonderful group of microcredit (small loan) recipents who welcomed me in true African style: jubilant dance and song.

I was immediately struck by how EMPOWERED the women are — they have a sense of their value, power, and contribution to their families that I’ve never seen. It made me SO happy to be here!

Microcredit creates miracles for war ravaged

Our first stop today was to visit a group of people who had been handicapped by the atrocities of the civil war. Many of the shops along the road sell crutches and wheel chairs to serve the people who have been mamed.

This group of injured people had been formally street beggars, but now are SO empowered due to the small businesses they are building as a result of microcredit.

The leader of the group, a woman who has had polio since she was a child has to hold her knee with every step she takes so that it stays straight and she can move forward. But the fire that came forth from her when she spoke to the group about not being defined by your handicap and proving society wrong about their judgement of your condition completely blew my mind. I’ve never seen such power coming from those who face such adversity.

200 children attend a one-room school while their mothers work

Next we visited another Foundation for Women program that helps women work in a marketplace.

We visited the school that their children attend while they are working.

Over 200 children crowd into one classroom grades K-6 and have one teacher who earns $20 per month to be there from 7 am to 4 pm.

It would take so little to fix this issue! And the kids are amazingly open and fun.

SHANTI UGANDA is a Vancouver based organization dedicated to helping children, women and communities in Uganda find peace and health. It is their belief that in order to overcome trauma and conflict within a community, we must first allow individuals to heal and uplift their minds, bodies and spirits. Their programs provide the tools needed to find inner peace and well-being, foster conscious birth and manifest health, happiness and community.  All Shanti Uganda projects combine healing, birth education and community development initiatives. Natalie Angell, founder of Shanti Uganda has been here at Bishop Asili for the last few days training a small group of HIV positive women on how to make paper bead necklaces. The women are to gather for five full days to learn the methods involved in cutting and measuring paper, rolling beads, varnishing beads, hanging them to dry and then finally making them into beautiful pieces of jewelry.

Natalie Angell and her counterpart Julius work together to train the women on the bead making process

Thirty women eagerly gather together in this round hut every day to learn and practice what they've been taught

The paper must first be measured and cut properly in order for it to be rolled into a perfect paper bead shape.

The paper is then rolled tightly around a needle. It takes a great deal of patients and practice in order to ensure that the outcome is a quality paper bead. The process is meticulous and challenging.

Natalie and Julius give the women constructive criticism for improved quality and praise to those beads that are well made.

The beads are placed on strings and covered with a clear varnish. Once they have dried they will be strung into lovely pieces of jewelry, which will be purchased from the women by Shanti Uganda

I stopped by the hut to greet the women and to see how things were coming along for Natalie and Julius. The women were all enthusiastically making beads and are all clearly enjoying their newly learned skill!! Each of them is walking a treacherous path in life that most of us cannot relate to. It’s such a joy to see a hint of hope in these women’ s eyes.

http://shantiuganda.blogspot.com