Women's Equity in Access to Care and Treatment

We attended a fundraiser for WE-ACTx, a SF-based non-profit and NGO, focused on helping care for AIDS patients in Rwanda. The Rwanda genocide in the mid 1990's has been well-documented, less well-known is the fact that the systematic use of rape and sexual violence, has left a large segment of the surviving population infected with HIV/AIDs. Stories of men infected with HIV being instructed to rape as many women and girls as they can, combined with the systematic use of rape resulted in an explosion of HIV/AIDS cases, and has left the country ill-equiped to cope with caring and counseling the surviving victims. If you want to help the women of Rwanda, WE-ACTx is a great organization to donate to:

WE-ACTx is an international community-based initiative that was launched in fall 2003 by frontline AIDS physicians, activists and researchers with extensive experience in caring and advocating for HIV-positive women. Our primary goal is to increase women's and children's access to HIV testing, care, treatment, support, education and training in resource-limited settings at the grassroots level. We are committed to helping survivors of genocidal rape and sexual violence. WE-ACTx began working in Rwanda in early 2004 to provide HIV care to genocide rape survivors, in active partnership with the Rwandan government and five local NGO partners. We focus on empowering HIV-postive women and girls to take charge of their lives and become leaders in the fight against AIDS.

They are also helping organize a group of performance and visual artists for a fund-raising show (March 23-26), designed to educate and promote awareness of the AIDS crisis in Rwanda. Check here for details. At the fundraiser, we saw inspiring photographs of survivors and heard about the Oral History project being spearheaded by WE-ACTx: the photographs and Oral History project will be part of the exhibit. Hope to see you at the show!