THE FIRST WOMEN’S TREATMENT LITERACY TOOLKIT: Empowering Women in Communities.

by Mbonisi Zikhali (Staff Writer).

KEYWORDS: HIV, AIDS, ZIMBABWE, WOMEN, SAfAIDS.

They knew the toolkit was theirs. The thoroughness with which they went through its contents was with earnest eagerness not only to understand it, but also to confer upon it the ultimate honour to grace their everyday lives. The Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS) held a two-day workshop on its Women’s Treatment Literacy Toolkit, with women from the Chitungwiza-University of Zimbabwe UTANO Community Partnership Project, starting on the 20th and ending on the 21st of July 2006. This toolkit is an example of the need for more practical, gender sensitive interventions in combating HIV and AIDS in resource constrained settings.

In 2005, SAfAIDS in partnership with the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and Action Aid International proudly launched the first Women’s HIV & AIDS Treatment Literacy Toolkit, which was received with tremendous enthusiasm at the 10th AWID International Forum on Women’s Rights and Development in Thailand (October 2005), as well as its Africa launch at the 14th International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Illnesses (STIs) in Nigeria (December 2005).

The first roll out of the toolkit was in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe during a historic session that lasted from the 19th until the 21st of June 2006. It was followed by a Training of Trainers (TOT) session at the SAfAIDS headquarters in Harare, from the 20th to the 21st of July 2006, where 15 members of the Chitungwiza Utano Community Partnership Project were trained. This occasion also marked the second roll out of the toolkit in the country. The women consisted of leaders of support and peer education groups for PLWHAs, and parents of disabled children. After the workshop the Swedish Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr. Sten Rylander, presented the trainees with certificates.

The Women’s Treatment Literacy Toolkit for Communities offers practical information on antiretroviral treatment to women, girls and those supporting them. It is currently available in English, Shona and Ndebele and awaits printing in Portuguese and French. According to SAfAIDS, the idea for the toolkit came out of the realisation that rolling out antiretroviral therapy involves more that simply availing antiretroviral drugs. Instead, it is a complex exercise whose planning should adequately address the special treatment concerns of girls and women. These concerns encompass adherence, women-specific opportunistic infections, effects of treatment, their biological (physical and emotional) lifecycles, reproductive and sexual health and choices, issues of post-exposure prophylaxis in view of rampant gender-based violence, and Prevention of Mother (or Parent) to Child Transmission (PMTCT) Plus programmes.

The toolkit includes fact sheets, posters, activity cards, a calendar, a brochure, an audiocassette and lists of additional resource materials. It is simple, user friendly, and clear and is designed to help its users make informed decisions about HIV/AIDS prevention, care, support and treatment. Illustrated with diagrams and pictures, the toolkit is equally useful for low literacy populations. SAfAIDS will also showcase the toolkit at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada. It will conduct two skills building session in English and in Shona (widely spoken in Zimbabwe) on 15 and 17 August 2006.

The two-day workshop with the UTANO Partnership women in Zimbabwe was an enlightening experience. The women participated with a genuine zeal to understand everything about antiretroviral therapy. Although the crowning moment was when they received certificates from the Swedish ambassador, the priceless moment was witnessing their eyes light up with amazement and apparent delight at seeing the SAfAIDS’ Women’s Treatment Literacy Toolkit for the first time. Their surprise at the existence of such a tool and the depth of the content is a testimony of the knowledge gap that still exists regarding treatment, among women in resource-constrained settings.

Women’s experiences are a barometer of how far we are in combating the disease. The increasing feminisation of the pandemic, which continues to worsen the situation of women, calls for a comprehensive review of how far we have come in ensuring practical, gender neutral and sensitive HIV/AIDS treatment initiatives in resource-constrained communities across southern Africa and other low income regions. The Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Thoraya Obaid, commenting at the recent United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS), expressed her concern at the increasing prevalence of HIV and Aids in women compared to men. She noted that the prevalence among women has jumped from 30% as of 20 years ago, to nearly 50% today.

The economic, social, cultural and political status of women determines the degree of pressure exerted towards responses in the areas of prevention, care, support, treatment and impact mitigation. The SAfAIDS Women’s Treatment Literacy Toolkit is part of SAfAIDS’ Regional Treatment Literacy Program, seeking to support and mobilize stakeholders to ensure that women and girls are mainstreamed into the agenda of HIV/AIDS related treatment interventions. Lack of access to treatment has only served to perpetuate stigma and discrimination experienced by HIV positive women in Southern African communities.

According to an SAfAIDS press release for the XVI International AIDS Conference, the two skills building sessions to be held in Toronto will be based on a theme entitled “Promoting Women’s Treatment Literacy As A Scale Up Strategy For Universal Access”. The skills building session is meant to provide participants with relevant and adequate knowledge and materials that can be utilised in educating and empowering others in the participants’ families, religious circles, workplace, social and peer groups. It places emphasis on mobilising communities to influence decision-makers towards protecting and promoting the HIV/AIDS treatment related rights of women in their constituents. “With the IAC theme being Time to Deliver, SAfAIDS has recognised the gross gaps in addressing women’s specific needs in the treatment continuum, and we are delivering”, Rouzeh Eghtessadi, one of the facilitators, shared. The toolkit is a huge stepping-stone for similar initiatives meant for communities.

The toolkit is now in roll-out phase. It is being translated into Portuguese and French and will soon be translated into local Zambian languages. The two roll out events in Bulawayo and Harare were an eye opener. The hope is that more women in communities shall be empowered with accurate and relevant information to enable them to make informed decisions in terms of accessing and demanding their rights to full participation in antiretroviral treatment programmes. The roll out shall further fortify women’s coping mechanisms in adhering to antiretroviral treatment (ART), and their ability to support their counterparts within the same continuum of care.