Authors: Marcela Alsina, Andrea Mariño
Publication Date: February 1, 2012
The Secretariat
for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) began a dialogue in
2010 with the Movimiento Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Mujeres Positivas
(Latin American and Caribbean Positive Women’s Movement - MLCM+) to learn about
the response to the epidemic of women and girls living with HIV in Latin
America.
The general
objective of the qualitative study was an assessment in 14 Latin American
countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela) that was both descriptive and exploratory in nature.
The specific study
objectives were:
- Describe and analyse the existence of vulnerability
factors in the lives of women living with HIV/AIDS prior to their positive
diagnosis.
- Describe and analyse the characteristics of the
lives of women living with HIV/AIDS in aspects linked to their sexual and
reproductive health, violence against girls and adolescents, work, stigma,
and discrimination.
- Describe and analyse the changes in the lives of
women living with HIV/AIDS from the moment of diagnosis.
According to UNAIDS
in Latin America, this study is different from the multitude of others
that exist because for the first time, women living with HIV/AIDS participated
actively in the entire process of the investigation. This strategy of involving
women directly in assessing their collective situation by sharing their
individual experiences is an important precursor for the second phase of the
proposal, which is to develop advocacy actions in the long term to come before
governments, organisations of people living with HIV, and agencies from the
United Nations systems to incorporate women and girls directly into the
response to HIV/AIDS and prioritisation in the agenda for women living with
HIV. Such an approach would provide a holistic view, including a gender and human
rights perspective to the responses to HIV/AIDS.
Data was collected
using a semi-structured interview. A preliminary version of the interview was
drawn up with a focus on recovering the trajectory of women’s lives. Women then
reviewed their stories and experiences and structured the interviews in ways
that made sense. This final version was validated during the meeting
"Vulnerability of Women Living With HIV/AIDS in Latin America" which
was held in Panama
City, Panama, April 11 - 13 2011. The interviews provided a vehicle
for the women to discuss the following:
• who they are as people/women;
• how they got their diagnosis;
• access to treatment and care;
• sexuality, sexual, and reproductive health;
• violence;
• experience with discrimination;
• refugees and displaced women; and
• strength the women found after receiving their diagnosis;
The chapter on
conclusions makes several recommendations based on the assessment of the 57
women who were interviewed. Some have a particular communication focus,
including:
- Establish formal mechanisms to ensure the full
participation of women living with HIV in the design of public policies
and decision-making at the highest levels.
- Promote and deepen national programmes in holistic
sexual education that guarantee access to integral information from the
time of childhood, in a context of equality between men and women and with
full respect for sexual and reproductive rights.
- Design information, education, and communication
actions that tend to take the myths out of treatment of risk regarding
HIV/AIDS.
- Train healthcare personnel on HIV and sexual and
reproductive health from a gender perspective and with regards to human
rights.
- Contemplate new forms of taking on the issue,
strategies, and methodologies for communication and information about
healthcare.
- Promote a culture of informed design and consent in
healthcare processes.
Click here to read this document in
Spanish in PDF format.
Publisher: Joint
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
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