UNIFEM - Local to Global 2006: The Feminization of HIV/AIDS

Thursday evening this week, at the Canad-Inns Polo Park, was the annual fundraiser for UNIFEM - the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

The featured speakers - Katherine McDonald with Johanne Fillion talked about the changing pattern of HIV/AIDS - with increasingly high proportions of women being infected. In fact, if I have the statistics correct, Katherine indicated that 75% of those with HVI/AIDS in subSaharan Africa are now women. Also troubling is the fact that young women appear to be the most vulnerable - with teenage girls being 3-5 times as likely to be infected with HIV/AIDS as boys the same age.

Katherine, with Action Canada for Population and Development, talked about the meetings in the 1990s which have now led to agreement that reproductive rights and women's rights are human rights.

Katherine emphasized that for historic reasons health care for people with HIV/AIDS and care for those seeking sexual and reproductive health care services have often been delivered separately. She emphasized the need to integrate health services that provide women and men with a full complement of HIV/AIDS, STI, and sexual and reproductive health information and services so that all are part of a "one-stop" access to services.

I have a particular family interest in this event. My wife, Naomi, considers this one of her favourite charities and donated a wonderful painting called Freedom Dance which was raffled off during the evening to raise money for UNIFEM. In the painting children and mothers are dancing. Naomi weaved threads into her painting to give it an exciting context and texture. Jennifer Rattray was the lucky winner of Freedom Dance.