Inter Press Service - October 3, 2002
Abraham Lama

Borja, who was 38 at the time, said "I found there that organised solidarity is an effective way to fight AIDS, whose very name makes us freeze up with terror, and to protect our self- esteem, which is so badly damaged by an illness that carries such a heavy stigma," said the activist.

"The support groups also improve our chances of receiving help, and of helping others.

"But the support groups were mixed, and many women never came back after their first meeting, or kept silent because it was hard for them to talk about some things in front of a group of mostly men," she explained.

Her experience in the support group organised by a local non- governmental organisation (NGO), Prosa, prompted Borja to set up a group "of women, for women."

Solas y Unidas (Alone and United), is an NGO comprised of around 20 women activists, most of whom are living with HIV, the AIDS virus, that provides social assistance and skills training to other female HIV/AIDS patients.

"Perhaps we could have set up a women's support group, to draw in more women with HIV and increase their participation," she said. "But we discovered a key factor: the different attitude of women with HIV/AIDS, compared to men in the same situation.

"When they find out they have HIV/AIDS, most men fall into depression, and feel miserable. Some become alcoholics and others become totally irresponsible, and if they organise, it is to demand help, and to be taken care of," she said.

"You have to imagine what happens in the home of a family that lives in a shanty-town, when the couple discovers they have HIV/AIDS. Even though the law bans discrimination and makes it illegal to lay off people because they've been infected with HIV, the truth is that they lose their jobs, or the men quit when they fall into a deep depression.

"Women, on the other hand, think about the impact on the family, on their children, and instead of stopping to work, they learn some money-making skill that they can do at home once their husbands lose their jobs, or, as sometimes occurs, abandon their families," she said.

Solas y Unidas operates in a two-story house in Los Olivos, a lower middle-class district on the edge of the slum neighbourhoods on the northside of Lima.

Borja, the group's founder and president, who lives on the second floor of the house, defines herself as "a 24-hour-a-day activist trying to help women with AIDS."

Solas y Unidas differentiates itself from other local NGOs not only because it is exclusively staffed by women, but also due to the different approach it takes towards social action targetting female HIV/AIDS patients.

"Besides the support groups and experience-sharing meetings, Solas y Unidas provides skills training to help homemakers living with HIV have a source of income while working in their own homes," said Ada Mejía, a social worker with another local NGO serving people with HIV, Vía Libre.

At Solas y Unidas, women living with HIV/AIDS take classes in dressmaking, or learn how to make leather purses and decorative candles. In a few weeks, the group will also start offering courses in pottery and artisanal toy-making.

"At this time, we have 14 workshops with groups of 10 to 15 women, ranging in age from 22 to 35, most of whom are homemakers with two or three kids. They come twice a week and can leave their children in our childcare centre," said Borja.

The possibility of being able to work at home is essential for women with HIV/AIDS to be able to resolve the economic difficulties generated by the disease, Mejía told IPS.

That is especially true in a country like Peru, where unemployment runs high, and more than half of the population of 26 million lives in poverty, she said, noting that just 30 percent of Peruvians are covered by the social security system.

"Among the lower-income strata, women, whether healthy or sick, put the care of their children before their own welfare. And when they are left by their partners, or their husbands' wages fall short, they work at home. That same attitude is found among women living with HIV," she said.

According to official statistics, 12,680 people in Peru test positive for HIV, 30 percent of whom are women. But Vía Libre says the real number could be as high as 70,000, 75 percent of whom are unaware they are infected.

Vía Libre also says that of an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people in need of immediate treatment, only 1,500 receive the antiretroviral drugs needed to ward off the onset of full-blown AIDS, in the hospitals of the social security system or the armed forces.

Vía Libre spokesman Eduardo Blume said the shortfall in treatment for HIV/AIDS patients has been aggravated by the fact that the administration of President Alejandro Toledo has dismantled, in practice, the government programme to fight AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Blume also said authorities had suspended their consciousness- raising, educational and prevention campaigns against HIV/AIDS, and that the budget for efforts against the disease has been cut.

Health Minister Fernando Carbone retorts that the state is doing what it can.

"There are 5,000 people with AIDS, 1,000 of whom are being treated by the social security system, because they have coverage, and another 800 of whom are women and children who receive treatment from the Health Ministry," said Carbone.

"That leaves 3,200 patients who cannot be attended because the budget is too tight. But we give priority to pregnant women with HIV/AIDS, to keep them from passing it on to their unborn children," the minister added.

Blume, however, argued that the treatment for pregnant women living with HIV is insufficient, "because they are given AZT (an antirretroviral drug) from six weeks before the birth to six weeks afterwards, to reduce the rate of transmission. But after that they are not given anything, and are just allowed to die."

Of the 12 NGOs in Peru fighting for the right of AIDS patients to health care, providing medical assistance and free or cut-price medicines, and organising support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS, eight are based in Lima. (END/IPS/LA/HE HD/TRA-SO SW/AL/DM/02)

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