Impact of Covid-19 on women's and girls' sexual and reproductive health and rights in Southern and East Africa In August-September 2020, with support from ITPC, Salamander Trust and Making Waves consulted with 30 women in 10 counties in Southern and East Africa through interviews. Ten interviews took place virtually with women leading community efforts to … Continue reading Our Voices: Covid-19 & SRHR

By Joyce Ouma (Image: International Partnership for Microbicides) The European Medical Association (EMA) on July 24th 2020 gave a positive opinion on the dapivirine ring developed by the International Partnerships for Microbicides (IPM) for use by cisgender women aged 18 and above in supporting them not to acquire HIV during vaginal sex. The ring is … Continue reading Let’s talk about the dapivirine vaginal ring

By Jacquelyne Alesi and Fiona Hale We are in the middle of a perfect storm. The climate crisis, the response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, ‘a crisis-within-a crisis’ in the form of the worst locust outbreak in decades, patriarchy, structural racism and rising inequality are all coming together to cause serious problems for people everywhere. … Continue reading Where is the support and funding for local, women-led and peer-led responses to COVID-19?

By Nunu Diana Alison While countries are busy putting in place different guidelines such as lockdown, closing of schools and working from home, there has been an increase in sexual and reproductive issues such as rape, unattended childbirth and lack of access to health facilities for people living with HIV. And these arising issues are … Continue reading COVID-19 and adolescent girls and young women’s SRHR in South Sudan

Report of the session, ‘Where is the funding for women’s rights?’ convened by Positive Young Women Voices and Salamander Trust at the Women’s Networking Zone 2020, Wednesday July 8 #FeministFuturesHIV To watch the recording of the session click here. To see the Twitter moment, click here. Read our blog about funding for women's rights here. … Continue reading ‘Don’t turn us into projects’

Funding for women living with HIV is vital to implement WHO’s Consolidated Guideline on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women living with HIV. This is recognised in the checklist for community engagement to implement the guideline, which calls on key donor partners to ‘support organisations and networks of women living with HIV, especially … Continue reading The scandalous lack of funding for women’s rights organisations

by Jacquelyne Alesi It was reported recently that in Uganda, some people living with HIV are abandoning their treatment because of COVID-19. Food insecurity is today emerging as a key barrier to ARV initiation and adherence, and as a contributor to ARV treatment interruptions. This puts people in danger of repeated illness due to opportunistic … Continue reading COVID-19, food and ARVs in Uganda

By MariJo Vázquez I have always been really interested in the capacity we have as humans to take care of and heal others – a capacity that I believe comes from our ability to heal ourselves. This interest led me to also take an interest in medicine, in how this science, this art, advanced to … Continue reading Four eyes see better than two: the importance of trust relationships

MariJo Vázquez Siempre me ha interesado mucho la capacidad que tenemos los seres humanos para cuidar de otros, para sanar a otros, una capacidad que creo que proviene de nuestra capacidad para sanarnos a nosotras mismas. Después dediqué parte de mi interés más en concreto a la medicina, a cómo esta ciencia, este arte, avanzó … Continue reading Cuatro ojos ven más que dos: la importancia de las relaciones personales de confianza