Women in Rwanda

IN 2003 RWANDAN WOMEN’S ASSOCIATIONS ISSUED AN international call to aid women who had been raped and infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) during the genocide and who were becoming sick and dying. As difficult as it was for the world to comprehend the tragedy of the 1994 events it was even more incomprehensible that while women with HIV were not receiving antiretroviral medications alleged perpetrators were receiving treatment in prison. The associations often led by survivors themselves care for thousands of widows rape survivors and orphans some specifically caring for those infected with HIV. The leaders of these associations knew their members needed antiretroviral therapy immediately to survive. However they also understood the physical emotional familial and economic struggles caused by the civil war and genocide that continued to traumatize these women and knew that successful management of HIV infection would require more than medications. Rwandan women with HIV infection needed counselors and therapy for posttraumatic stress support groups food housing education about their illness and treatment and job training as well as income for their children’s food school fees uniforms and pencils. (excerpt)