NAPWA highlights plight of women

Women living with HIV/AIDS still faced many challenges, despite the strides made towards empowering them since the country's independence, South Africa's association of people living with HIV/AIDS said on Thursday.

In a statement released ahead of National Women's Day on Friday, the National Association of People living With HIV/AIDS (NAPWA) said women from the group would lead pickets calling for an end to the stigmatisation of people living with HIV/AIDS, particularly women.

NAPWA Gauteng Provincial Coordinator, Patricia Ann Steady-Hlahane told PlusNews: "Today we targeted a prominent insurance company and a pharmaceutical company and we had peaceful protests outside their buildings. We just wanted to get it across that they can not persecute women and get away with it."

Pharmaceutical companies had to lower their prices and allow voluntary licences for the production of generic drugs by locally based companies, as drug prices were out of reach for most South Africans living with the disease, Steady-Hlahane said.

"They [pharmaceutical companies] are holding our lives in their hands," she added.

Women still received the brunt of insurance companies' discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS. "It is sill difficult for us to buy houses or receive any money when our husbands have died, nothing much has changed," Steady-Hlahane said.

One of the most important challenges facing women was coping with HIV/AIDS in the family. "After losing their husbands ...to HIV/AIDS related infections, women have to head their families and make provisions for the individual needs of the family members," NAPWA said in a statement.

Steady-Hlahane urged women to become involved with groups which helped mobilise and empower them through support groups and counselling services.

"Such activities keep us healthy and keep us going," she added.