HIV
and AIDS - Positive women: Voices and Choices project
Overview
The sexual and reproductive rights of women living with HIV are often routinely disregarded and violated. The International Community of Women living with HIV (ICW) developed the Positive Women: Voices and Choices project in response to this concern.
The project, which was funded by Comic Relief, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Ford Foundation, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization, documented the reproductive and sexual health experiences of HIV positive women in Zimbabwe and Thailand. Healthlink Worldwide helped the authors with writing, editing and producing the project report.
Writing up the study findings proved a lengthy task and, because of Healthlink
Worldwide’s experience in producing information on HIV and AIDS for
different audiences, ICW asked Healthlink Worldwide to help the authors
with writing, editing and producing the report. At our recommendation,
our local partner in Zimbabwe, SAfAIDS (Southern Africa AIDS Information
Service), carried out the design, final editing, printing and distribution.
The report has been well received, for instance, by individuals and organisations
attending the International HIV/AIDS Conference in Barcelona, 2002.
As a follow up from collaboration in this project, ICW and Healthlink Worldwide worked with local partners in Southern Africa and South East Asia to develop international and local information resources and communication tools. These aimed to address information gaps highlighted by the studies in Zimbabwe and Thailand. A second publication The House of Dreams: Building a positive future’ was produced in 2004-05 with Healthlink Worldwide providing technical support in the process of publication.