Communities in East Africa respond to HIV/AIDS

These two brave women (widows with six and three children respectively) got tested and started on ARVs. They now participate in their community group to encourage people to get tested and to change their sexual behaviors.

A group of 8 people who came together to help their community - to financially and emotionally support the orphaned children; to do health education; to distribute condoms; and to help people get to VCTs and obtain antiretrovirals. They want to save their community from the devastating effects of this disease.

Zena is a farmer, a widow and has six children. She has worked for years helping women deliver their babies in their homes. Now she works as a community health worker educating and teaching around maternal and child health, prevention of malaria and diarrhea and talking to everyone about HIV/AIDS - preventing it, getting tested and getting medications.

Educating people and changing habits and addressing cultural traditions are the greatest challenges in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Condoms work if there is good couple communication, but in most cases women do not have a say, they are victims of sexual violence and need control over their own lives. The research into microbicides will provide women with an alternative.