How Nivedita prevents HIV-AIDS
Awareness of HIV-AIDS is not enough. A woman must
first recognize that her her biggest risk factor for
HIV is her husband. The Nivedita serial dramatizes this predicament, making the situation
real and personal to viewers. However, once a woman
recogonizes her risk, what can she do?
Morever, her vulnerability to HIV-AIDS is complicated by powerlessness
from systemic gender inequality comprised of multiple
factors including:
1.
Lack of mobility / isolation at home
2. Bias in her education / illiteracy
3. Limited access to health and legal information
/ services
4. Limited access to personal financial resources
/ credit
5. Lack of independent livelihood skills
So if her husband
refuses to listen to reason about the risk he brings
to the family, she may face violence or be thrown
out of the house if she insists on abstinence or a
condom. She knows that without options, she
will be easy prey for traffickers.
The Nivedita television serial models two avenues of redressing
these factors: community based action and formal government
action.
Community-based action
Women's self-help groups (SHGs) play
important roles in women's empowerment, both at the
local level and through state-wide networking, providing:
1. Women a forum to solve their own problems together
2. Training to fill gaps her (lack of) formal education
3. Capacity building in health and legal literacy
4. Microfinance opportunities for savings and loans
5. Livelihood skills training and marketing networks
for women's microenterprises
These resources are available in virtually
all rural villages by contacting a community activist/organizer.
If you need help finding this person, send the name
of the woman, district, mandal and village to us by post
or email.
Formal, government system
Vulnerable women can access similar
functions, including various counseling and shelter
schemes, through various government options. Learn
more about services offered through the Legal Services
Authority and the Department of Women Development
and Chld Welfare. Important contact information is
available by registering for access to the Nivedita referral
network.
With such safety nets in place a vulnerable
woman is better placed to negotiate sex with her husband
for the security of her family. She'll be a survivor,
and so will her children, even if her husband and
in-laws insist on making dangerous choices.
Learn
more or sign up to
help women you serve take advatage of this unique
opportunity |
