Impact of gender-based violence - World AIDS Day Special

World AIDS Day falls in the middle of the annual 16 days of activism against violence on women, and gender activists in Kenya are taking the opportunity to highlight the issue of HIV/AIDS as a consequence of gender-based violence. The 16 days are observed worldwide between the International Day Against Violence Against Women on 25 November and the International Human Rights Day, which falls on 10 December. Under the theme 'I care ... do You?', this is the second year of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS') two-year campaign focusing on the role that men can play in rolling back the AIDS epidemic, which has already claimed 22 million lives worldwide. A report by the Panos Institute entitled 'AIDS and Men: Taking Risks or Taking Responsibility' noted that: "Although the AIDS epidemic is driven by men, many prevention programmes continue to target women instead of seeking to change men's sexual behaviour." In an apparent response to the UNAIDS call, a significant portion of activities to mark the 16 days of activism as well as World AIDS Day in Kenya this year are targeted at men. Seven-hundred Kenyans succumb to the disease daily while another 2.5 million who are already infected are expected to perish over the next decade. One million Kenyans have already died of the disease since the mid 1980s. As part of it's programme, the Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW) - whose theme this year is 'Together Against Domestic and Sexual Violence' - hosted a public talk on 28 November on the role of men in combating gender-based violence against women. COVAW is a Nairobi-based lobby and advocacy group opposed to all forms of violence against women. Rosemary Mueni Mbaluka, an advocacy programme officer at COVAW told PlusNews: "One of the issues we will be raising is HIV/AIDS as a consequence of gender based violence." While both single and married men generally tend to have more sexual partners than women, studies conducted in South Africa and Tanzania have shown that abusive men more often than not have multiple sexual partners and are therefore more likely to expose their partners to infection. There is also a higher probability that such men would force their partners into sex - including anal sex - without protection The Tanzania study found women who were victims of domestic violence were two-and-a-half times more at risk of being infected with HIV/AIDS. The risk was said to be 10 times greater for women under 30 years of age, whose economic and social dependence on men made them vulnerable to sexual abuse and unable to negotiate safe sex even with their husbands. The South African Study, 'Violence, Vengeance and Gender' by Lisa Vetten of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation found that HIV positive women face even further victimisation. Husbands sometimes blamed them for getting infected, moving out or throwing the woman out of the marital home, or denying her access to his medical aid. According to Njoki Wainaina, the immediate past chair of the African Women's Development and Communications Network (Femnet), such abuse is a direct consequence of the skewed power relations between men and women. "When you look at the whole concept of domestic violence, it is clear that any hope for the future lies in empowering women. We need to work with men, we need to show them that there are benefits in empowering women," she said. It is in this spirit that Femnet, in collaboration with COVAW, the Youth Programme of the Ford Foundation, German Agency for Technical Co-operation, UNIFEM, Thompson Kenya, and an international advertising agency, has organised a four-day 'Men-to-Men Regional Consultation' on ending gender-based violence in Nairobi from 6-9 December. The participants will be from Kenya, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa and various sectors of civil society, the private sector and government. The consultations, which will be for men only, will be conducted by men who are familiar with gender issues and participatory methodologies. The last day of the consultations will, however, include women and the issue of HIV/AIDS will be discussed according to Alice Munyua, communications officer at Femnet. Some of the topics that will be covered are gender-based violence in Africa, its impact on development and efforts to combat it. Another paper will tackle African ideologies of manhood, and suggest ways to create new concepts of masculinity and male identity as a way of combating violence against women. The long term aim of the initiative is to create a nucleus of male advocates to lead a sustained campaign to end gender-based violence and move women closer to attaining the goals of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action. Eliminating violence against women was one of the twelve critical areas of the 1995 Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action for Equality, Development and Peace. Another specific objective of the men-to-men consultations is to build on Femnet's experience in gender training, which has already targeted men as allies in campaigns to enhance girls' education, and the men-to-men approach to reproductive health and HIV/AIDS that has been so successful in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda. More recently, the organisation has been working with men on gender violence and HIV/AIDS. Compared to Southern Africa, men support groups are still something of a novelty in Kenya. But two groups which have been invited to attend Femnet's men-to-men consultation appear to be coming into their own. They are the Husband Support Group, which is based at the United States International University in Nairobi, and spearheaded by Katama Mukangi, a professor of sociology. The second, Men With Women, is the initiative of the Reverend Timothy Njoya of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. Other men's groups which are expected to attend the men-to-men consultations are the Young Men's Christian Association, male support groups from various churches and professional groups like lawyers and policemen. Mukangi told PlusNews that the 30-member Husband Support Group, which was formed in 1998, aims to bring husbands together to counsel each other about family life, with a view to achieving their motto of "turning their houses into homes." However, Mukangi added that while the effects of male physical violence against women are well documented, little is said about the growing trend of psychological violence - a form of violence mostly meted out to men by their aggrieved spouses or even their mothers. "The cold shoulder treatment has a devastating effect on men. They can't deal with that kind of violence and it can only elicit two responses - fight or flight. The man will either stay home and fight or go out and get AIDS and bring it back," warned Mukangi.