Inter Press Service - December 18, 2001
Reine Azifan

Kabore says studies conducted in eleven African countries show that "the average rate of HIV/AIDS infection among teen-age girls is five times higher than that among teen-age boys".

Among young women age 20 to 24, the rate is three times higher than for men in the same age group.

Given the "feminisation" of the AIDS epidemic, African women have decided to declare war against the disease. In 1988, they created Society of Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA).

Charlotte Faty Ndiaye, the president of the association, calls the founding of the group African women's response to AIDS.

Fourteen years after its founding, the SWAA is now operating in 36 African countries, with programmes designed to help both women and children.

"We work in the areas of AIDS awareness, information and training for women from every walk of life, treatment of women living with HIV, AIDS orphans, and promoting the female condom", Ndiaye says.

In Tanzania, the SWAA, which has been active in the East African country since 1989, has set up women's community projects, specifically for promoting awareness and supporting infected or affected women.

An information and advice centre was created in Tanzania to provide advice, medical care, and some material support to people living with HIV.

The centre, which has been run by SWAA since 1993, has enrolled more than 700 clients. It also provides training in AIDS prevention to women who perform female genital excisions, church people, and traditional midwives.

In Burundi, the SWAA also has initiated income-generating projects for infected women and AIDS orphans who have been forced into the role of head of household.

In all, 296 families have taken advantage of micro-credit programmes since 1997. The amounts borrowed have averaged between 30,000 (35 U.S. dollars) and 100,000 Burundian francs (117 U.S. dollars).

According to SWAA's president, the income-generating programmes in agriculture, animal husbandry, and cottage industry have been critical in reducing the vulnerability of women living with AIDS.

SWAA has trained people about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and AIDS in Ghana, and has promoted female condoms. Women have been instructed in the use of the condom.

According to Ndiaye, creating a condom sales network permitted them to distribute 9,000 of the devices.

In Burkina Faso, SWAA has managed to install a toll-free telephone number (known locally as a "green line") so that women in need can easily reach their offices. Thanks to this line, local SWAA staff can refer people with HIV to doctors for consultations. The association also helps pay for laboratory fees and medicine.

"Our offices in other countries, such as Senegal, provide similar services", notes Khady Fall of SWAA Senegal.

In its campaign to promote female condoms, the SWAA is supported by the UN Women's Development Fund (UNIFEM).

According to Yassine Fall, its regional director for West Africa, "the female condom is the sole source of protection available to women today. The product is well accepted, but it needs to be subsidised".

For the moment, the product is available in some West Africa countries but is relatively expensive. In Senegal, for example, it costs 1,200 CFA francs (about 1.7 U.S. dollar), compared to a male condom, which costs only 50 francs.

"There again we see discrimination against women, whose purchasing power is already very weak", says Yassine Fall.

SWAA is planning to make the condom both more widely available and cheaper.

"Our struggle is to make the female condom more accessible and more affordable because given the feminisation of poverty, very few women can buy condoms which cost 1,200 CFA francs (about 1.7 U.S. dollar) each".

In addition to helping protect African women against AIDS, the SWAA has initiated a project to assist AIDS orphans in Africa.

HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the UNAIDS. "The estimated 3.4 million new HIV infections in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2001 mean that 28.1 million Africans now live with the virus. It is estimated that 2.3 million Africans died of AIDS in 2001," says UNAIDS.

UNIFEM and the WHO participated in the Twelfth International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) organised in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso last week.(END/IPS/AF/HE/TRA-FR/RA/SZ/MN/01)
011218
IP011212

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2001. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2001. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .