Fighting poverty, The Namibian

1. Raise discussions on the links between poverty and HIV.

2. Raise discussion on gender and business reporting.

Trainer’s Notes: The article twice refers to HIV/AIDS as one of the challenges facing Namibia in addressing poverty, but makes no further effort to mainstream it into the coverage. The article is completely gender blind and does not mention the feminisation of poverty and different impact of poverty on men and women. The SME sector is referred to several times, but again it is addressed generally and there is not attempt to discuss the role of women.

1. What are the links between poverty, gender and HIV/AIDS (topics to be discussed can include why poor women are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, how poverty impedes access to information that can protect and resources, such as health care services, the impact of HIV on poor women and families).
2. What are the particular challenges for women owners of SME’s?

 

Training Exercises:

1. Trainees could look at the use of data in the article and how the article would be different if gender disaggregated statistics were provided. 

2. Trainees should also examine the sources used in the article – they are all speakers who addressed the workshop. Trainees can identify other sources, including poor women, women are part of SMEs, health care workers and community activists, and then rewrite the article to include their perspectives. 

Links to Training Resources:  
Gender and HIV/AIDS: A Training Manual for Southern African Media and Communicators, Gender Links and the AIDS Law Project, Chapter 8, www.genderlinks.org.za/docs/training/hiv-training-manual/hiv-ch8.pdf