Think of all the friends you have ever had. Now imagine one in six of them are HIV positive - and there is little or no treatment available.
Over 1000 children were newly infected with HIV per day worldwide in 2008. Now a treatable condition, people with HIV should be living healthy and productive lives. But this is not happening. Medicines available to treat people living with HIV remain unreachable for most people in poor countries.
ActionAid has been working on HIV and AIDS since 1987. We give practical support to people in 23 countries, lobbying governments around the world to mount the required response to the pandemic.
We treat the AIDS crisis like HIV itself - as a virus that needs treatment urgently. There is no cure, so prevention is essential.
Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your siteVIDEO: Hear Ludfine Anyango speak about living with HIV & AIDS and coordinating ActionAid Kenya’s fight against the epidemic in her country.
HIV, AIDS hits women hardest
The denial of women's rights and HIV and AIDS are twin pandemics. Physically and culturally women are vulnerable to infection as they often have little say in when or with whom they have sex. Over six out of 10 people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women, and the proportion is rising. [WHO]
Once infected, a poor woman is often evicted from her home, her children taken away, she is ostracised by her community and physically abused. It’s no surprise that many women choose not to seek treatment for the disease - they are too terrified of being ‘outed’.
Stepping Stones
is an ActionAid training program, developed to help women and men explore their sexual health. The program encourages people to discuss the changes they want and find ways to make them happen.
Parallel workshops take place for men and women - by working in separate groups they have a safe, supportive space for discussing intimate issues. The separate groups then meet together to share insights.
Results include:
- safer sexual behaviour
- reduction in domestic violence
- greater sharing of household tasks by men
- improved communication between couples and between parents and children (especially on sensitive issues relating to HIV and sexual health)
Bags of love
ActionAid funds the Nepal National Social Welfare Association's maya ko thaili (bag of love) project.
Nepalese migrants working in India are sent packages which include a letter from their family, some family keepsakes and HIV and AIDS-related information. The package reminds the worker of their family and promotes awareness of the dangers of unsafe sex.
Dating in Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, ActionAid funds a dating service for HIV-positive listeners of a radio station, with the aim of ending the stigma associated with the virus and the social isolation of those who are HIV-positive.
Killer facts
- Two million people died of AIDS related illnesses worldwide in 2008
- Half of all adults living with HIV are now women. In Africa that figure rises to 61 percent.
- A person born in Swaziland today can expect to live to just 33.
- In Sudan only 5% of women knew condom use could prevent HIV infection. [UNIFEM]
