FHI - FHI/Cote d'Ivoire Celebrates International Women's Day

MARCH 2009 — Each year FHI/Cote d'Ivoire celebrates International Women's Day by supporting HIV/AIDS sensitization workshops for women. Topics have included PMTCT, women's vulnerability to HIV, and stigma and discrimination.

This year, FHI is sponsoring an International Women's Day activity in Abengourou, a city of more than 100,000 people located in the eastern part of the country. The goal was to sensitize these prominent women to HIV/AIDS issues and urge them to include an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in their community activities. With the help of Dr Josephine Diabate of the Ministry of AIDS and a member of the Ivorian Network of People Living with HIV (RIP+), the attendees learned about the pandemic and the vulnerability of women with HIV. The attendees were particularly impressed by the testimony of the RIP+ members and a demonstration of the female condom, which was given by a Social Marketing of Condoms representative.

FHI staff intended that the sensitization session create an avenue for continued dialogue among the attendees and their organizations and the Ministry of AIDS. To that end, the AIDS ministry followed up with the women in the hope that they would use their new-found knowledge to raise community awareness about HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, and treatment.

The March 2008 session in Gagnoa was the third International Women's Day event FHI has sponsored in Cote d'Ivoire. The city of about 107,000 is a major market center for the Bete and Gagu people and was a prime location for the presentation. FHI organized the event through the Ministry of Family, Women, and Social Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of AIDS, the Business Coalition of Cote d'Ivoire Against AIDS, and the Ivorian Network of People Living with HIV (RIP+).

To observe this day last year, FHI provided logistical, technical, and financial support for a sensitization session in Gagnoa, Cote d'Ivoire, for 50 leaders of women's associations.

PHOTO: Women who attended the March 2008 International Women's Day sensitization session in Cote d'Ivoire relax after a working group meeting. (FHI/Côte d'Ivoire)