Africa: World Aids Day rally protests outside WB/IMF offices
Africa Action marked World AIDS Day by co-sponsoring a major rally outside the World Bank and IMF to condemn policies that undermine the fight against HIV/AIDS for women and girls in Africa and throughout the global South. This year’s World AIDS Day theme focuses on the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls around the world. At this morning’s rally, Marie Clarke Brill of Africa Action said, "In Africa and increasingly around the world, AIDS has a woman’s face. If we are to turn the tide of this pandemic, we need to promote strategies that will address the gender inequalities that leave women and girls most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Instead, the policies of the World Bank and IMF continue to undermine women’s health in Africa and around the world."
Africa Action Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ann-Louise Colgan 202-546 7961
Africa Action’s World AIDS Day Events Highlight Impact on Women
Rally at World Bank/IMF Condemns Policies that Undermine Fight against
HIV/AIDS; Documentary Screening Reveals Gender Inequalities that Fuel
Pandemic
Wednesday, December 1, 2004 (Washington, DC) - Africa Action today
marked World AIDS Day by co-sponsoring a major rally & die-in outside
the World Bank and IMF to condemn policies that undermine the fight
against HIV/AIDS for women and girls in Africa and throughout the global
South. This year’s World AIDS Day theme focuses on the disproportionate
impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls around the world.
At this morning’s rally, Marie Clarke Brill of Africa Action said, "In
Africa and increasingly around the world, AIDS has a woman’s face. If we
are to turn the tide of this pandemic, we need to promote strategies
that will address the gender inequalities that leave women and girls
most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Instead, the policies of the World Bank and
IMF continue to undermine women’s health in Africa and around the world."
Africa Action’s Executive Director Salih Booker said this morning,
"Women in Africa are fighting not only a virus and systemic
discrimination, but these powerful international financial institutions
that define their economic realities. While Africa faces the worst
health crisis in human history, the World Bank and IMF continue to
insist that African countries prioritize repayments of illegitimate
debts over spending on HIV/AIDS programs."
At the rally, dozens of women and girls dressed in red formed a human
chain in the shape of a women’s symbol to dramatize the disproportionate
impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls globally. Latest UN figures reveal
that the number of women living with HIV/AIDS continues to increase in
every region of the world. In Africa, almost 60% of those living with
HIV/AIDS are women.
This evening, Africa Action will co-host a screening of "In Women’s
Hands", a documentary film that explores the impact of HIV/AIDS on women
and talks about the pursuit of microbicides to help women protect
themselves from HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Africa
Action notes that continued research into female-controlled HIV/AIDS
prevention methods such as microbicides is crucial to giving women
control over their sexual health and to fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic
globally.
This morning’s rally and die-in was co-sponsored by ActionAid
International USA, 50 Years is Enough Network, Global AIDS Alliance,
Global Justice, Jubilee USA Network, Nicaragua Network, Religious
Working Group on the IMF/World Bank, Student Global AIDS Campaign and
United Methodist General Board of Church and Society.
For more resources on the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa and the
structural obstacles that undermine African efforts to respond to this
pandemic, see http://www.africaaction.org