 HALI Against AIDS - LET'S TALK ABOUT IT
Appalling figures
Sub-Saharan Africa, the area by far the most touched, is home to 29,4 million people infected with HIV. Another 3.5 million new infections occurred there in 2002 and the epidemic has killed about 2,4 million victims in the past year. The area is home to ten million 15 to 25 year-olds and nearly 3 million children of less than 15 infected with HIV, of whom 800' 000 live in Chad.
What makes young African girls so vulnerable to HIV infection
In spite of the recent positive trend observed among young people (in particular women) in certain African countries, it is evident that, overall, two times more young women than young men are infected in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2001, it was estimated that 6 to 11% of young women aged between 15 to 24 years had AIDS, compared to 3 to 6% for the young men. This phenomenon appears to be due to several factors.
Women and girls often suffer discrimination regarding their access to education, employment, credit, healthcare, property and heritage. Given the current negative trend of many African economies, which is increasing the ranks of the poor, relationships with men (either informal or made official by marriage) can constitute a vital opportunity for financial and social security, or a means to satisfy material aspirations. It is generally the older males who are most able to offer this safety. But in the areas where the virus is very widespread, they are also more likely to be HIV-infected. A combination of dependence and subordination makes it generally very difficult for girls and women to demand protected sex (even with their husbands), or to end relations involving a risk of infection.
Studies have shown that young women tend to marry men older than themselves by several years. Already the risk of infection increases additionally even if the man is only three or four years older than them. Moreover, ignorance in regard of sexual hygiene and AIDS is widespread. In the African countries which are suffering from undergo generalized epidemics, it has been shown that up to 80% of women between 15 and 24 years of age lack basic knowledge concerning AIDS. This phenomenon, combined with the fact that young women are more vulnerable to infection from a biological point of view (their cervix being more susceptible to lesions), contributes significantly to explaining the great differences between the vulnerability of girls and young boys.
The report that UNICEF has compiled is more than alarming. It strongly advises political leaders to take all the measures necessary to avoid propagation of the HIV virus to the younger generations.
HALI considers that alarm has clearly sounded and wants to develop educational packages for young people in Chad, as a starting point, which will then be followed up in other countries.
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