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Isles women Reps resolve to join forces against HIV/Aids
2006-05-25 08:09:25
By Guardian Reporter
Women legislators in the Zanzibar House of Representatives have expressed determination to increase their efforts to challenge HIV related stigma and discrimination.
A US Embassy press statement released yesterday in Dar es Salaam says the House members will give special emphasis in fighting the scourge among people living with HIV/Aids and children infected and affected with HIV.
The statement says the House members, including all members of Umoja wa Wawakilishi Wanawake (UWAWAZA) or the Zanzibar Women Members of the house of Representatives, made the resolve during a meeting recently to discuss the stigma related to HIV and Aids.
They also committed themselves to use their influence and voices to raise awareness in their communities about the impact of stigma on families and society in general.
’We need to start in our own homes, our backyards and then move to our neighbourhoods,’ Najma Khalfan, one of the House members is quoted as saying.
’It is important to join our efforts; put aside our political affiliations because HIV does not select. We are all at risk and therefore we need to fight together, she adds.
The statement says that Khalfan was speaking recently at the end of a three-day workshop on understanding and challenging HIV related stigma that was supported by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through USAID’s partner Pact Tanzania, as part of a three year program - the Jali Watoto Initiative (Care for the Children’) and Anti-Stigma Campaign.
’The Jali Watoto Initiative will work with local organisations, faith based groups and community groups to provide support to most affected children as well as train young people, journalists and policy makers to challenge HIV related stigma in their communities,’ reads the statement, in part.
Women representatives also identified drug abuse among men and women in Zanzibar as another issue which needs consolidated, serious efforts, says the statement, adding that they also agreed that drug abuse not only affects the most productive members of society built is also responsible for the spread of HIV.
’It is our responsibility as women and as leaders to start up this war against drug abuse,’ says Samia Suluhu Hassan, Minister of Trade and Investment.
She adds: ’’We have to tell our law enforcers that we are tired of losing our children. They have to be serious in fighting drug trafficking.’
Hassan reaffirms that this challenge is a responsibility of everyone and therefore they have to jointly mobilize women in all sectors of the society to join hands in pressing the government to take the drug abuse issue as a serious threat to the lives of many Tanzanians and therefore it needs a serious commitment.
During the three day workshop, Representatives shared their experience and real life stories on HIV related stigma to conclude that stigma and discrimination is rooted in the Isles like many parts of the world and they have a major role to play in challenging it, concludes the statement.
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