AEGiS-11IAC: The impact of HIV/AIDS on Nepalese women: contributing factors and lessons learned from community based interventions.

11th International AIDS Conference

Vancouver, British Columbia — July 7-12, 1996

The impact of HIV/AIDS on Nepalese women: contributing factors and lessons learned from community based interventions.

Int Conf AIDS 1996 Jul 7-12; 11:484 (abstract no. Pub.D.1302)
Shrestha A; WATCH (Women Acting Together for Change), Kathmandu, Nepal. Fax: 977-1-473-224. E-mail: watchftp@mos.com.np.

ISSUES: AIDS has become a major world concern for its impact on individuals and larger groupings such as families, communities and economies. But in Nepal, where the epidemic is still in its early stage, numerous issues, problems and facets of the pandemic, and how to address it have only begun to emerge. It is not premature, however, to try to assess its impact on the Nepalese population and, in particular, on women who are being severely affected by the pandemic. Women who have been unequally shouldering the burdens of the negative impacts of developing societies must now prepare to shoulder this new burden.

PROJECT: WATCH (Women Acting Together for Change), which began working on strategies of HIV/AIDS intervention three years ago draws upon its experiences in the field to understand and highlight the possibilities for HIV/AIDS prevention among women. Insights on AIDS prevention are also drawn from numerous case histories conducted among those women who are most affected by the pandemic: HIV/AIDS+ women and sex-workers.

RESULTS: WATCH's experiences show that the conditions under which Nepalese women are living set the stage for their increasing vulnerability for infection and death from HIV/AIDS. In particular, a declining rural economy, coupled with the negative influences of "modernization" and a culture in which gender discrimination is rampant have led to an increase in the sex-exploitation of women-a situation in which women are being not only victimized but blamed for the spread of AIDS.

LESSONS LEARNED: We caution that AIDS cannot be fought in isolation but must be integrated with struggles for women's human rights, fulfilment of basic needs, empowerment and the revival of self-respect.

Keywords: AEGIS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV, HIV Infections, HIV-1, Women's Rights, Disease Outbreaks, Social Change, Culture, Nepal, Human, Female, nursing, economics, ICA11

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