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"Prevention is the way to go"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(20/08/06)
IT was a few years ago that Winnie Singh and her husband (Rtd) Lt. Gen.
Bhopinder Singh began to realise that HIV was creeping into the lives of
uniformed personnel in their country.
“I started finding out about the state of affairs and asked to meet those
who were HIV-positive in the hospital. You don't meet them when you are in
the battalion,” said Bhopinder, 60, the former director general of Assam
Rifles when met at the just concluded XVI International AIDS Conference in
Toronto.
“And when I met them, you could see the fear written on their faces. There
was no one they could talk to.”
With that, Maitri, a non-governmental organisation, was formed with Winnie
as chairperson.
In the past year and a half, they have expanded their services, which
include prevention, education, training, care, and support, from soldiers
and their families to the villagers who live in northeast India.
Part of their prevention work is giving counselling to couples as women
often do not have informed choices when it came to their relationship with
their husbands, said Winnie, 53.
Girls married at a young age and were not allowed to speak out, she
explained. But the situation could be rectified if the husbands became aware
of the rights of women, she said.
“Demonstrations are also held for men who are shown how to use condoms in
the right way,” Winnie said.
“They say that they use condoms as some of them have been going to sex
workers for the past 10 to 12 years. But then you find out that they haven't
been using condoms correctly.”
Prevention has turned out to be the battle cry against the virus at this
year’s International AIDS Conference. With no vaccine in sight, those in the
business of saving lives have issued call after call that preventing the
transmission of HIV is the best possible solution for now.
And women have been given extra attention because they are becoming
increasingly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.
It is hoped that microbicides for women and oral prevention drugs will be
released for public use in the next few years.
The UNAIDS Epidemic Update for the virus reported last year that half of the
40 million people living with HIV/AIDS are female. The biggest risk for many
women and girls is marriage, stated the UNFPA in its “State of the World
Population: The Promise of Equality: Gender Equality, Reproductive Health
and the MDGs”.
For Winnie, breaking the barrier with women has taken a long time.
“Now the rural women have become peer educators and can conduct proper
workshops,” she said.
“But even if you can empower the women, it will still be a long time before
they can say ‘No’ because there are still factors like society and family
pressure.”
Buarian Butdeeken’s HIV positive status is known in her village, as she is
the only one there with the virus.
An activist against HIV/AIDS, the petite-sized Thai divulges her condition
to certain groups when she talks about HIV prevention.
And when she does, it makes the message of prevention more meaningful to her
audience.
”There is more opportunity to share my story and experience so it is a more
comprehensive discussion,” said Butdeeken, 35, who is attached to the Thai
Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS and also works to get access to
treatment for infected people.
She lost her husband and eight-month-old son to the disease, but she has
remarried and now has another son.
“The man and woman need to discuss and make decisions when it comes to
practising safe sex. It is not just the man or the woman deciding. Both have
equal rights,” she said.
Kirenjit Kaur from Malaysia, another person living with HIV/ AIDS, said that
women could be a powerful voice when it came to prevention where they had
the right to say “No”.
In the course of talking publicly about her status, she said more often than
not, it was the first time the audience had heard from a HIV-positive
person.
“Part of my story itself is to give hope to the infected and affected,” said
the Kuala Lumpur AIDS Support Services exco member.
“I hope to empower women who are HIV-positive in Malaysia to help them
become strong enough to deal with the problem, and to educate them and
encourage them to form a strong network. They must come out and do something
for women around them.”
Hong Kong AIDS Foundation chief executive Lin Oi Chu said their method of
putting a halt to HIV/AIDS is to provide basic information, conduct
demonstrations on the proper way of using condoms, and asking provoking
questions.
“We have interactive workshops,” she said, adding that the foundation
initially went through a painful process of getting women to participate in
prevention workshops.
“There were times when there were six staff members and just two
participants.
“But when we changed our messages from just ‘Women and HIV’ to include the
family, it was more accepted by the society.”
Notes: STF -: Preventing the spread of HIV has been emphasised as one of the
weapons to combat the epidemic while a vaccine is being developed. At the
just concluded XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, AUDREY EDWARDS
spoke to representatives of some organisations in Asia who are striving to
do just that.
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