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http://www.comminit.com/hiv-aids/content/nuestras-historias-nuestras-palabras-situación-de-las-mujeres-que-viven-con-vih-en-14-pa

 

Our Stories, Our Words: The Situation of Women Living with AIDS in 14 Latin American Countries

 

Nuestras historias, nuestras palabras: Situación de las mujeres que viven con VIH en 14 países de América Latina

 

Authors: Marcela Alsina, Andrea Mariño

Publication Date: February 1, 2012

 

14 países de América Latina

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:

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Design information, education, and communication actions that tend to take the myths out of treatment of risk regarding HIV/AIDS.
  4. Train healthcare personnel on HIV and sexual and reproductive health from a gender perspective and with regards to human rights.
  5. Contemplate new forms of taking on the issue, strategies, and methodologies for communication and information about healthcare.
  6. 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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