Lessons from Integrating Human Rights Education and Advocacy into HIV Care for Women In Rwanda

WE-ACTx provides comprehensive medical and psychosocial care to HIV infected women and their families through an integrated service delivery model, informed by 24 grassroots Rwandan partner associations. Rwandan psychologists, trauma counselors, doctors, nurses, and family peer advocates staff the program. Support groups and individual counseling are available. Many of the women and girls who participate raise issues involving legal in addition to health concerns, such as rape, other sexual abuse and violence, discrimination in housing, property, inheritance, and child custody. While staff respond to individual needs, the grassroots partners seek to address human rights issues in the broader context of the neighborhoods and communities in which the women and girls live. Rwanda's 2003 constitution and national policies promote gender equality in many significant ways, but major challenges lie in educating local communities and enforcing human rights. The WE-ACTx Legal Project: provides staff with back-up and support on patients' human rights, disclosure rules, appropriate referrals, and collaboration with local law enforcement; works with individual women and girls confronting difficult legal problems; provides extensive community legal education through the 24 grassroots partner associations; and networks with government agencies and policy-makers on progress toward gender equality . This integration of human rights education and advocacy into the delivery of comprehensive health care aims to empower women and girls and treat the whole person.