Did you know that globally there are 20.2 million girls and women living with HIV. This means girls and women make up more than half of the 37.7 million people living with HIV. Although some adolescent girls and young women were born HIV+;  heterosexual unprotected sex remains the predominant risk factor for HIV infections among young women.

 

Women living with HIV face many vulnerabilities and unmet needs that impact their quality of life but also influence their ability to reduce their HIV risk behaviors. Gender inequality, including lack of access to resources and power, acts as a major barrier to women's participation in their own health care. For young women living with HIV, their health care and secondary prevention efforts are often constrained by poverty, gender roles, cultural norms, and limited perceived control over sexual relationships. 

 

Ending AIDS by 2030 requires that we address girls’ and women’s diverse roles by putting them at the center of the response. At All Women Advocacy our programs focus on behavioral change interventions aimed at reducing  sexual risks and empowering young women living with HIV with knowledge and skills pertaining to HIV risk reduction as well as to the factors that increase women's vulnerability, such as sexual inequality, gender, and power imbalances.

 

AWA links young women living with HIV to self-help groups that encourage positive living, consistent condom use, adherence to treatment, retention to care; in order to achieve viral suppression and decrease HIV transmission. AWA challenges the consistent silencing of the concerns of women living with HIV and we advocate for access to human rights based, women friendly HIV treatment and services in Zimbabwe