[Viva] Fwd: Peace an opportunity to stop AIDS - By Patricia Perez

[Margarite Sanchez]

fyi

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: MORE PEACE LESS AIDS <press at morepeacelessaids.org>
Date: Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 10:53 AM
Subject: Peace an opportunity to stop AIDS - By Patricia Perez
To: margaritesanchez at gmail.com


**

*Peace, an opportunity to stop AIDS*

By PATRICIA PEREZ

For 26 years I have lived with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Since 1990 I travel the world organizing groups of women -on five
continents- with my same condition. Today AIDS has a feminine face, a woman
under 25 years old, semi-illiterate and poor. The United Nations warns, the
epidemic grows among young women biologically and socially vulnerable, and
finds a breeding ground for gender crimes, social and domestic violence,
religious intolerance and actions against women who end up behaving under
others control.
Today I know that peace is not merely the absence of war, is the absence of
any kind of violence. Gender inequalities, differential access to health
services and sexual violence make us vulnerable to HIV. Women -especially
on the poor areas- face barriers in access to prevention and treatment
services, given its limited power of decision, lack of control over
financial resources and the responsibility of caring for their children, in
countless countries and cultures is a responsibility only for them.
They have less information and fewer resources to take preventive measures.
The vulnerability of women living with HIV is worsted by the stigma and
discrimination that prevents them from asserting their rights and live in
dignity.
With peace at homes there are possibilities to ensure sexual and
reproductive health, and make joint decisions within the family about
pregnancy and parenting, without experiencing violence from those who
should protect them, without fear of communicate their diagnosis to their
own families and finding the care they need.
Peace in neighborhoods and communities means to live without stigma or
discrimination, without fear of seeing their friends and neighbors and
benefit from local health services without worrying about people point them
or avoid contact with their children and homes. When peace reigns in
countries, the resources devoted to the war can be channeled to where they
are really needed, towards health services and education.
When the international community recognize the importance of peace and
their role to eliminate the conflict, poverty and inequality, we will see
significant global changes in comprehensive and global response to the HIV
epidemic, then we will reduce the number of people vulnerable to HIV, and
those living with it will stop to feel they have to hide or lie about their
HIV status to avoid punishment.
*The Foundation More Peace Less AIDS*, whose subsidiary for the Americas
will settle in Panama this 2013, and headquarter are located in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, brings a culture opposed to the violence which generates
prejudice, bigotry and inequality, finding here an opportunity to stop AIDS.

*Join us on Facebook.
*The More Peace Less Aids Foundation wants you to be connected on Facebook,
Click here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/MORE-PEACE-Less-AIDS/533089360034591
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/viva/attachments/20130208/e913a116/attachment.html>