Stories
In South Africa, young women leading HIV and violence prevention say men’s involvement is key
Monday, November 30, 2020
On World AIDS Day (1 December), we spoke to survivors and community changemakers in South Africa who as part of UN Women’s HeForShe community-based initiative and a joint UNAIDS programme are engaging men and women to reject violence against women and seek HIV testing and treatment.
Statement: Rebuilding better together to end AIDS for women and girls
Monday, November 30, 2020
In a statement for World AIDS Day, 1 December, UN Women highlights the need to accelerate action towards gender equality, ending violence, supporting leadership and the full enjoyment of their human rights for all young women and girls, especially those affected by both coronavirus and HIV
Op-ed: Why we’re uniting in support of African girl leaders to beat AIDS and shift power
Friday, October 9, 2020
In a joint op-ed for International Day if the Girl Child, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, Director General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay, Executive Director of UNFPA Natalia Kanem and Executive Director Henrietta Fore highlight the need for vital investments and transformational policy shifts so that all of Africa’s girls can enjoy all of their rights to education and empowerment.
Tajik businesses run by women living with HIV supply key protective gear for COVID-19 response
Monday, June 8, 2020
Dilyora Mammadova, a woman living with HIV from Tajikistan, is working with affected women and high-risk groups, helping identify new cases of local HIV infection, supporting women with the same diagnosis, and bringing them medicine. Through a joint UN Women- UNAIDS project for women living with HIV in 2019, her small sewing workshop and her business proposal received funding. Nowadays, due to the high demand for COVID-19 protection masks, Mammadova is supplying masks.
I am Generation Equality: Nicholas Niwagaba, young leader, human rights advocate
Friday, February 21, 2020
As the Executive Director of Uganda Network of Young People Living with HIV/AIDS (UNYPA) Nicholas Niwagaba is a Ugandan Health advocate who works to improve the quality of life for young people living with HIV in Uganda. Nicholas leads a youth movement to increase access to quality sexual and reproductive health services and information and to create an enabling environment for young people living with HIV.
Friday, November 29, 2019
Yana Panfilova, 22, is a Ukrainian HIV positive activist and co-founder as well as chairwoman of Teenergizer, an organization that supports and advocates for the rights of HIV positive youth in Europe and Central Asia (Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia). She was also nominated as a heroine for UN Women’s Generation Equality campaign in Ukraine.
Statement by UN Women on World AIDS Day, 1 December
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
The contribution of women and girls, particularly those living with HIV, is indispensable in the HIV response at the community level. Women and girls provide critical care for family and community members living with HIV, and help ensure they start and stay on treatment.
Statement by the Executive Director: Know your HIV status, make informed choices
Friday, November 30, 2018
In a statement for World AIDS Day, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, calls for strong commitments towards ending the epidemic, prioritizing the needs of young women in national HIV policies and local actions, and supporting women and girls to feel confident and empowered to demand that their HIV and other health needs are met.
Video: Empowering survivors and women living with HIV— Elena’s story, Ukraine
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
In this short film, Elena Vdovenko, a social worker at the Kyiv Centre for HIV-positive youth, talks about how her HIV+ status and the domestic violence she survived informs her work with women and youth every day.
Take Five: "We have the expertise to bring solutions"
Friday, July 20, 2018
Svitlana Moroz is a Ukrainian women’s rights activist living with HIV. She is one of the founders of the Union of Women of Ukraine affected by HIV “Positive Women” and since 2013 she has coordinated activities for the Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS. As thousands of HIV activists from around the world attend the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam from July 23 to 27, Moroz spoke to UN Women about the importance of women’s voices in the conference and beyond.
In the words of Baby Rivona: “Once I fought for my rights, the other women followed”
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Baby Rivona is a legend in Indonesia, loved widely, as well as feared by some. A passionate advocate of women living with HIV and AIDS, she is as often seen on the world stage, as she is the many districts and villages of her home country. Her mission is to guarantee access to treatment, services, and a life free of stigma and discrimination for women living with HIV and AIDS.
Statement by UN Women Executive Director: Leaving no one out from health
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Every four minutes, three young women become infected with HIV (UNAIDS Right to Health report, 2017). They are clearly not enjoying their right to health, nor will they, until we are able to reverse the inequalities and discrimination that fuel HIV spread. Those whose health and future are currently least prioritized must become our focus, if we are to achieve the changes we seek.
Living with HIV and violence: Women of Ukraine speak out and build solidarity
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
In Ukraine, 35 per cent of women living with HIV have experienced violence since the age of 15. Many women cannot definitively say that they have experienced violence, because they have suffered and witnessed gender-based violence through generations and it has been normalized. For women living with HIV, lack of awareness, shelters and support services pose additional challenges. Peer-support groups and the National Women’s Forum on HIV, supported by UN Women is bringing awareness, action and new beginnings for HIV positive women survivors of violence.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Itumeleng Komanyane is the International Programme Manager at Sonke Gender Justice in South Africa, which advances gender equality and addresses HIV and AIDS across eighteen countries in Africa. At Sonke, she coordinated a multi-country project funded by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (managed by UN Women on behalf of the UN system) from 2011-2014, which focused on increasing support among men and boys to end gender based violence in Kenya, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Recently, Komanyane attended the 61st session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Thursday, April 6, 2017
This year, World Health Day, 7 April, focuses on the issue of depression. Impacting millions of people around the world, depression is the leading cause of illness and disability across the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In the words of Luiza Karimova: “We were sex slaves”
Monday, February 20, 2017
Originally from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Luiza Karimova left her son with her family and travelled to Osh, Kyrgyzstan to find work. In Kyrgyzstan, she was sold into sex slavery and trafficked into Dubai. After 18 months, she was arrested and sent to jail. Today, Karimova works with Podruga, an organization based in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, which is supported by UN Women. Podruga works to end violence against women and assists women subjected to sex and drug trafficking.
Rural Ugandan women living with HIV break stigma and build businesses
Monday, January 30, 2017
A series of entrepreneurship trainings developed by UN Women has equipped women living with HIV and AIDS with essential social and economic skills in Karamoja, Uganda.
From where I stand: Chum Sopha
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Chum Sopha, now 29, works with HIV-positive women in Roka Village in north-west Cambodia.
World AIDS Day Statement: For young women, inequality is deadly
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
For young women, inequality is deadly—Statement by UN Women on World AIDS Day, 1 December 2016
From where I stand: Natalia Minayeva
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
On World AIDS Day, we highlight the story of Natalia Minayeva from Kazakhstan, who was imprisoned in the so-called “AIDS barracks” and now works to protect the rights of HIV-positive women.