Programme News

Strengthening advocacy by documenting the experience of people living with HIV

“People living with HIV are experts in their own lives and know first hand about stigma, discrimination they experience and other barriers to accessing services,” said Rahab Mwaniki of the National Empowerment Network of People living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK) (pictured above), at a board meeting of the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+) held in Cape Town on April 2.

“Our big discovery [about HIV-related stigma and discrimination in Kenya] was that more than 60 per cent of the people living with HIV we surveyed said they have been gossiped about because of their status; more than half have been verbally insulted, harassed, threatened and a very high number have been physical assaulted: 42.8 per cent,” she said. She went on to describe villages where HIV-exposed children have been abandoned by the community, examples where HIV-positive women were sterilised without their knowledge and many other cases of flagrant human rights violations of people living with HIV.

"Documenting such experiences, by participating in the HIV Leadership through Accountability Programme,’ has helped NEPHAK grow as an organization, develop an evidence base for its advocacy and start to engage in policy work in Kenya, Ms Mwaniki told those at the meeting.

Forcing the Issue: "Ukuthwala - Stolen Innocence"

Ukuthwala, is a practice -- illegal according to South African law -- that involves a man and his peers setting out to compel a girl or young woman's family to endorse marriage negotiations.

The tradition is practised mainly by Xhosa-speakers in the Eastern Cape and in parts of KwaZulu-Natal. Girls between the ages of 10 and 20 are taken against their will to a man's home where she is forced to be his wife, and to have sex with him. The men are often more than 20 years older than the girls.

In the documentary, Ukuthwala-Stolen Innocence, launched earlier this month by the World Aids Campaign (WAC), a girl living in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape tells her story of being a victim of this practice: "The lady from next door called me and asked me if I wanted to get married. I said no. She said if I refused they would take me by force and beat me up.

Moldovan campaign for increased state funding for ARV treatment

The World AIDS Campaign recently participated in a series of meetings with representatives from key organisations involved in the HIV response in Moldova to evaluate the situation in country and identify strategic directions for Moldova in 2011 and beyond.

'Ubuntu Bethu' Campaign Platform leads the Provincial Strategic Plan

The HIV Leadership through Accountability 'Ubuntu Bethu' Campaign Platform is leading the review of the Eastern Cape Provincial Strategic Plan (PSP) 2007-2011 and the planning for the 2012-2016 PSP. In addition the Campaign Platform is representing Eastern Cape Civil Society in the review of the South African National Strategic Plan 2007-2011. 

Kenya’s Parliamentary Caucus on HIV & AIDS

Kenyan All-Aprty Parliamentary Group on HIV and AIDS is set up to sensitise and inform MPs about HIV in order to deliver better HIV related legislation. This resulted as a direct result of partnerships and links developed from the HIV Leadership through Accountability programme.