Women living with HIV have come out to draw the public’s attention on the issue of stigma and other daily challenges they face .Speaking at a news briefing organised by the International Community of women living with HIV/AIDS, Vivian Furaha, , a pharmacist, said most of the infected women suffer stigma and discrimination at home, school and at the workplace.“Once people find out you are infected with HIV, they start treating you like you are abnormal. Some of our colleagues have confessed that people refuse to share rooms with them once they find out they are infected with HIV,” said Furaha. “Some can’t even access jobs yet they are willing to work”.She said work policies exist but some aren’t implemented, stressing that HIV infected people are often times denied access to loans and credit facilities from some financial institutions.Claire Gasamagera, another HIV positive woman, called upon the concerned authorities to protect those infected.“We have specific times for taking medication and visiting the health provider for tests...we need our employers to understand our situation during such moments. We shouldn’t be chased from work or discriminated against because of our status,” she said.Gasamagera added that people should stop making fun of them and calling them names because having HIV is a sensitive issue. She instead called for support.Isabelle Nizeyimana, an accountant and business woman, said they face difficulties while trying to access loans and are also denied life insurance.According to Nizeyimana, this makes it hard for the women to expand their entrepreneurial portfolio and build their own businesses since they can’t access loans like other people.She said they are also denied inheritance rights as they are wrongly perceived as people who would die soon, which isn’t the case.Nizeyimana explained that being infected with HIV isn’t the same as having Aids adding that most of them are people living with HIV and not Aids, which is a disease. The women called upon the media to play a role in changing people’s mindset towards those infected, to stop being stigmatised and ridiculed.All these sentiments were expressed during a three day workshop aimed at building capacity for HIV-positive women in health and rights using research to articulate an advocacy agenda based on sexual and reproductive health.
