175947 War, Rape and HIV: Mobilizing positive women and grassroots NGOs – field lessons and strategies from East Africa

Monday, October 27, 2008: 1:15 PM

Anne-christine D'Adesky, MS , Women's Equity in Access to Care and Treatment, San Francisco, CA
     
Targeted sexual violence has been a feature of genocide and civil conflict that has helped spread HIV in Rwanda in 1994, and in recent years, in neighboring countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, northern Uganda, and newly, Kenya, as well as Sudan and South Africa. The issue of rape as an engine of HIV's spread to women and children deserves urgent attention. In 2007 and early 2008, WE-ACTx did site visits and training workshops with HIV positive women's and survivors groups in several East and southern African countries to assess their response to the needs of HIV positive survivors of rape with or vulnerable to HIV, including children.

This presentation will compare programs, strategies and challenges addressing the link of war, rape and HIV for groups in East, Central and southern Africa, and the lessons that Rwanda in particular offers to other countries. It will offer suggestions for establishing a public-private, community-based infrastructure for monitoring and responding to rape in which HIV positive women and local NGOs play a frontline role.

Anne-christine d'Adesky

co-Founder, WE-ACTx

weactx@gmail.com

Learning Objectives:
This session will provide participants with information to 1) better understand the specific service needs of survivors of sexual violence in conflict settings who are vulnerable or affected by HIV; and to 2)better analyse the different components that make up a holistic response for this population and 3) innovative strategies being employed in the field in different countries. Outcomes: Participants will learn to identify core needs and barriers to service delivery around GBV and HIV; to assess and analyse different approaches being used, and to understand how to apply the key lessons learned by groups in Rwanda and elsewhere that may be applied in other countries. Learing Objectives: 1) Identify and list key common needs of rape survivors with /vulnerable to HIV; 2) develop a plan for establishing local, grassroots approach to GBV-HIV monitoring and reporting that is linked to public health and legal institutions; 3) create a local networking strategy for mobilizing HIV positive women and NGOs in conflict zones to respond to GBV-HIV threat.

Keywords: Women and HIV/AIDS, Sexual Assault

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I carried out the research and trainings that are the basis of this abstract.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Lessons from Integrated HIV Care for Women in Rwanda
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