Women and HIV

The Women and HIV Community Development Program is a locally designed initiative focused on educating women about HIV prevention and increasing the quality of life for women living with HIV. The main topics of our curriculum include: prevention, living with HIV/AIDS, healthy sexuality, HIV testing and vertical transmission (when HIV is passed from a mother to a child during pregnancy or labour).

Although gay men still represent a large number of the HIV infections in the province. The reality is that women represented about 27% of new infections in Canada in 2008. Internationally, women between the ages 15-24 are 1.6 times more likely to contract HIV than their male counterparts (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2008). HIV education for women is the key to prevention; therefore we focus on bringing together organizations to educate high-risk groups.

Women and HIV is a new program that was launched in early 2011. Our program is committed to growing in order to meet the ongoing needs of the community. To do this, this year we will be launching many new initiatives including:

• The First Annual PHA Women’s Retreat
• ‘A Woman Like Me’ Awareness Campaign
• Tailored outreach programs to at risk populations

In addition to these specially designed initiatives, the program will be hosting workshops in local communities, organizations and agencies.

Throughout the year we will also be distributing educational material, and developing events on an ongoing basis and specifically geared for women. Together, with the help of local organizations we know we can improve the availability of information and increase women’s awareness about HIV/AIDS.