Loan assistance urged for HIV-positive women

Ugandan AIDS NGOs have been urged to act as referral centres to help HIV-positive women living in rural areas obtain small loans. A parliamentarian for the Mwenge south district, Dora Byamukama, said the assistance would enable the women to sustain themselves without depending on handouts from their husbands, who often abandon them when they test positive for HIV. Research shows that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has also adversely affected the country's young rural women, often leaving disproportionately more AIDS widows than traditional safety nets can accommodate. The local New Vision newspaper quoted Byamukama as saying: "HIV-positive women have long been dependant on handouts. It is high time NGOs acted as referral centres to link women with microcredit schemes for small loans."