WUNRN
CAMBODIA
Women living with HIV in Phnom Penh set up their own cooperative for income generation and vow to make their factory a ‘model workplace environment’ for people living with HIV in Cambodia.
On 27 – 29 November 2006 the Positive Women’s Sector of Cambodia (PWS) held a three day workshop for twenty eight women living with HIV. Held in Takeo Province the workshop was focused on improving their livelihood opportunities and was organized by the PWS, with support from UNIFEM and UNDP.
Under its 'Women and Wealth Project' (WWP), the PWS is providing support to the Modern Dress Sewing Factory (MDSF); a new enterprise established as a women's cooperative by a group of women living with HIV. Based in Phnom Penh, the MDSF was set up by a group of HIV positive women in response to increasing demand from multi-national companies based in Cambodia to outsource piecemeal sewing. Several of the women who now work for the MDSFwere experienced garment factory workers who were forced to leave their jobs as a result of workplace stigma and discrimination about their HIV status.
The Takeo workshop aimed to strengthen the capacity of staff to develop the business, and to economically empower the women workers. Emphasis was placed on extending skills to improve income generation and developing a safe and HIV-friendly workplace.
In the discussions, key concerns of the HIV positive women workers were identified. These included workplace policies on health, hospital attendance to receive ARV treatment during official business hours, as well as more common concerns regarding opportunities for professional development, accountability procedures and factory regulations. Strategies for addressing these needs and concern are now being developed by a staff-management committee in response to the issues raised in the workshop.
It was agreed among participants that networks of HIV positive women should start to advocate on the issue of stigma and discrimination in the workplace, and that the staff and management of the MDSF would work together to make their factory a model workplace environment for people living with HIV in Cambodia.
The Positive Women’s Sector in Cambodia was launched in collaboration with the National AIDS Authority, UNIFEM, UNDP, UNAIDS, and UNV on March 8, International Women's Day, in 2005 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Positive Women's Sector is an initiative led by women living with HIV and represents a crucial step in bringing “women’s voices” into the national and community responses to the epidemic in Cambodia.
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