* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Sarah West is media manager at International HIV/AIDS Alliance. The opinions expressed are her own.
HIV alone accounts for 61,000 maternal deaths every year, with HIV positive mothers four to eight times more likely to die during childbirth than HIV negative women. Despite the medical advances that are available to test women for HIV and prevent mothers from passing HIV to their unborn child, every day 1000 children are born HIV positive. The figures are mind boggling. This World AIDS Day, on December 1, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance is focusing attention on the impact HIV has on women and girls.
The following pictures illustrate some of the work of the Alliance.
Zambia
Mothers wait for services with their young children at a community based clinic in the outskirts of Lusaka. The Alliance works with communities to increase awareness of HIV and maternal services, and prevent mother to child transmission of HIV.
© the Alliance
South Sudan
HIV positive mothers are four to eight times more likely to die during childbirth than HIV negative women. Women often have to travel huge distances to get to a health centre. Motorbike ambulances provided by community organisations make a difference in helping women to deliver their babies safely.
© the Alliance
Zambia
The Alliance’s Maternal Newborn and Child Health programme has seen an increase in male involvement in maternal health, especially in Kenya and Zambia.
Health care workers reported an increase in serostatus disclosure among couples when men accompanied their female partner to antenatal services.
The picture shows Amon Banda and his young daughter.
© the Alliance
Uganda
A mother at Kojja-Mukono Health Centre, Mukono District, Uganda. The clinic has a Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme. According to UNAIDS, for the first time in the history of the epidemic there is a strong possibility of eliminating new HIV infections in children.
© Nell Freeman for the Alliance
Kenya
Benta Nyipolo and Spira Kaari are expert patients in the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission programme. Both women are HIV positive and use their personal experiences in their work with patients at the Blue House Clinic in Nairobi, Kenya. The clinic is supported by KANCO (the Kenya AIDS NGO Consortium).
© Nell Freeman for the Alliance
Kenya
Serah Wangari and her sons Alex Mwangi 14 years and Edge Shikuku 4 months. Serah has been living with HIV for many years and thought she could have no more children. With the support of the Blue House Clinic in Mathare, a slum area of Nairobi, she learned about prevention of mother to child transmission and had Edge who she is breastfeeding exclusively.
© Nell Freeman for the Alliance
Cote d’Ivoire
Marie Louise Bley comforting her adopted child Loroux Marie Theophile in Bassam, Cote d'Ivoire.
APED is a small organisation working with children either infected or affected by HIV and AIDS and mostly staffed by volunteers. They approached Marie to ask if she could care for the orphaned baby.
‘I have a big heart and she has no family. At the start she was often ill and I would try and feed her but she couldn’t keep it down. Now happily all is fine and she very healthy and happy. I am very happy being her mother- in fact I love it.”
© Nell Freeman for the Alliance
Cote d’Ivoire
Sandrine Famien and her two month old baby Laeticia Affiba Kouassi.
Sandrine is HIV positive and a sex worker, she has three other children who all live with her mother. “I want to work in a restaurant. I have no fears for my baby. I want her to go to school. Some days I don’t have enough money to buy the medications for my baby or the food I need to feed her as I am not feeding her by the breast. But I am not angry. I have hope.”
© Nell Freeman for the Alliance
Uganda
Civil society and community based organisations have come together through 'National Partnership Platforms' to work together on maternal newborn child health and HIV issues. This has lead to a greater engagement and buy-in from government policy and decision-makers and increased the media coverage and awareness of these issues.
Members of the community wear t-shirts with slogans to support maternal, newborn and child health project
© the Alliance
Also see: Discrimination against women spurs HIV/AIDS spread
