PWN at 20: It’s World AIDS Day, so Do Something

This is the final blog in our series: PWN at 20 which honours our twentieth anniversary providing support, education, community resources and networking for women with HIV and health care and social services communities.

It’s World AIDS Day, an internationally recognized time to remember the past and rally for the future. This year there are multiple themes, a reflection of the diverse issues presented by HIV. The UK National AIDS Trust says “Act Aware.” UNAIDS has set sights on “Getting to Zero.” Here at home, the Canadian AIDS Society urges Canadians to “Do Something.” There is still so much to be done.

Twenty years ago some visionary women set out to support women with HIV in the Vancouver area. They were women with HIV and women from various backgrounds- nursing, social work, and education. They knew something needed to be done for women specifically, and their first meeting in the common room of a housing co-op led to the nationally recognized organization we are today. One of the big themes talked about back then was the stigma that women face, especially as members of intricate family units that centre around them.

Stigma still exists everywhere for women with HIV. A Canadian study of women revealed that stigma figures highly in their day to day lives, as does sexism and racism.  Women the world over report this. There is stigma in having HIV, and stigma in “bringing it into the family” whether this was the actual case or not. Women who discover their HIV status during pregnancy often bear the brunt of blame, as they receive the diagnosis their husbands haven’t sought.  

But women challenge stigma, and challenge the destruction that HIV brings. The Grandmothers to Grandmothers  movement is a great example. Many grandmothers in African countries have to step back into parenting their orphaned grandchildren when adult children die of AIDS. Grandmothers here in Canada work to raise awareness of the need for this work and funds to support it through the Stephen Lewis Foundation. (Yes, that IS a plug to donate!)

Peer support is also an essential part of confronting HIV as it weaves through medical, political, socioeconomic, geographical, and intimately personal pieces of life. (True, that sentence is a challenge. – but so is living with HIV). Members at Positive Women’s Network say “PWN is a confidential and safe space created for women…it feels like a family, feels like going home.”

As another member puts it, “Women heal women.”

But women can’t do this work alone. Women and men need to work together to change the shape of what it’s like to live with HIV. Many courageous and strong people do just that. Here in BC, PWN is lucky to work alongside many organizations that recognize the unique need for women’s services and complement them with their own. We’re also grateful to groups and individuals we work with across the country.

As the PWN community contemplates the beginning our twenty-first year in “Challenging HIV. Changing Women’s Lives” we ask everyone to “Do something” on World AIDS Day. Learn about HIV; talk safer sex with those you care about, young and old. Share the humility that this could happen to any one of us – risk factors for HIV transmission are based on human vulnerabilities. Make sure you and your loved ones know how to prevent HIV and where to go for support should it be needed. Don’t deny- do something.

- Janet 

Another edit of this post is on You Should Know

photo: Kevin Rosseel/ Morguefile