Twelve women living with HIV met with Ms. Althea Cohen (the Jamaica CCM representative) and key Women4GF (W4GF) Advocates on May 31, 2014 to strategize on the Global Funds’ new funding model (NFM) and on how to engage in the country dialogue process.
This meeting provided opportunity for women living with HIV to share with Althea key challenges that they are facing related to their HIV status, especially in the health care system including:
• Stigma from health care providers towards people living with HIV;
• Ageing with HIV;
• Ensuring economic security for women in the form of employment – a cornerstone to ensure that women are able to make decisions about their own lives and bodies;
• The need to urgently address violence against women in all its forms as well as
• Discrimination in the employment sector and protecting people who are forced to migrate because of their HIV status.
Key recommendations that came out of this meeting included:
•Women must maintain this dialogue and continue to learn and understand how the Global Fund works as well as in country processes.
• Greater networking is needed to disseminate information to women in all their diversity across Jamaica.
• Global Fund money must be used wisely – making money work for women in communities, ensuring that it is spent efficiently, effectively and with the right communities.