Webinar: Women and Harm Reduction: A forgotten population

Join Harm Reduction International and Women4GlobalFund to discuss harm reduction that works for women and the Global Fund’s response.

Thursday, 5 November 15:00 – 17:00hrs CAT

Join us to engage and find out more about

  • The reality for women who use drugs in countries
  • What do we know? What do we need to know?
  • The latest community research
  • What is the Global Fund funding and what are the gaps?

Register here and we will add the details to your calendar.

Speakers
  • Angela McBride: Executive Director, South African Network of People who Use Drugs (SANPUD)
  • Zeinab Ahmed: In charge of programming for women at Muslim Education and Welfare Association (MEWA), Kenya
  • Sam Shirley-Beavan: Public Health Consultant, Harm Reduction International
  • Palani Narayanan: Senior Technical Advisor, Community, Rights and Gender, Global Fund.
Why this webinar? 

The impact of gender inequality on women who use drugs and the impact of punitive legal frameworks reinforce each other. Available harm reduction services are generally tailored towards men and, as a result, often fail to address the specific needs of women. For example, harm reduction programmes rarely support women’s personal safety and confidentiality, and/or do not provide sexual and reproductive health services and/or prevention of vertical transmission services and/or child care.

Little attention has been paid to gender differences in drug use which is essential to develop treatment approaches that work for women. One third of all people who use drugs are women and girls, yet only one in five of those women receive treatment.  Although men are more likely to use drugs, the combined social, institutional, health and cultural effects and risks carried with drug use, are disproportionately higher in women.  Women living with HIV who experience violence are less likely to access HIV care and participate in HIV prevention and drug and treatment services. 

All of this affects how the Global Fund is able to ensure that countries provide the right services for women who use drugs given the Global Fund’s commitment to rights-based and gender-responsive approaches to delivery of health services, including harm reduction, HIV and TB services for people who use drugs. If you want to know more about what the Global Fund does support around harm reduction click here.

When

The webinar will take place on Thursday, 5 November at 15:00-17:00 CAT across the following time zones. Double check time zones here if your country is not on the list below:

  • Haiti, New York: 8:00 – 10:00hrs
  • Bolivia: 9:00 – 11:00hrs
  • Ghana, London, Senegal: 13:00 – 15:00hrs
  • Cameroon, Nigeria, Switzerland: 14:00 – 16:00hrs
  • Botswana, Kyiv, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe:15:00 – 17:00hrs
  • Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda: 16:00 – 18:00hrs
  • India: 18:30 – 20:30hrs
  • Bangkok: 20:00 – 22:00hrs.
How to Join
  • On the day please follow this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83733863057
  • Meeting ID: 837 3386 3057
  • Passcode: 710332
Posted in Webinars