Global: 20 years of service by and for women in the HIV epidemic

2012 marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW). Coincidentally, the International AIDS Conference is back to the United States after 22 years. It was at this conference 20 years ago that the ICW was formed.

Although the HIV epidemic was identified more than thirty years ago, people did not realise at that time that women were being infected and that, as time went on, they would become a significant group of the infected population. In the early 1990s, a group of women from different countries, diverse cultures, many languages, and with gender diversity met in London to discuss the epidemic from the perspective of women. These early discussions led to the formation of ICW Globalthe following year at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam.

Today, challenges for women in this epidemic remain. They include lack of access to treatment, inadequate care and support services, lack of information about reproductive health choices and rights, protection from all forms of violence including intimate partner violence and lack of legal support for legal and economic rights and security. Our motto, “Nothing for us without us,” continues to be as relevant today as it was when we started the organization 20 years ago. Click here to read more

Source: blog.aids2012.org