Leading Change: From little things big things grow: Women leading change

At the World YWCA’s International Women’s Summit on HIV and AIDS in July 2007, the Women Leading Change Awards recognised the outstanding leadership of 14 community women on HIV and AIDS. Three years later, we explore how the award has impacted on the lives of two recipients.

Veronica Kini Morfaw, Cameroon

Veronica Kini Morfaw from Ntankah Village Women’s Common Initiative Group received the Women Leading Change Award for her outstanding policy and advocacy work in Cameroon. She has been instrumental in reducing the stigma attached to HIV and AIDS in her community and in identifying the socio-cultural factors that spread HIV.

The award has exposed me to many new organisations and I am now working with a broad range of clients with limited resources. I advocate not just for the person living with HIV but their caregivers too. I have more passion to carry out my work and a deeper understanding of needs.

I helped revive the Ghaife Mother Centre, purchasing text books for the library and organising free classes for children. I have also been involved in two test litigation cases that I supported with funds from the award. One, for a widow whose property was seized after her husband’s death, and the other, for a woman kicked out of home when her husband married a younger woman.

With the Huairou Commission, I undertook research to quantify the contribution of grassroots women to home-based care for AIDS patients. I have also been running a micro-credit scheme for grassroots women. This work started with seed money from the YWCA award. I have also obtained cassava and maize processing units for women in order to reduce labour, generate income and ensure food sustainability.

I began the fight for legalisation of the Cameroon Grassroots Women’s Educational, Economic and Social Advancement Network. After two years of lobbying, the network was given legal recognition and has obtained funding to provide human rights education and assistance to widows, orphans and vulnerable children.

The award gave me national and international recognition and credibility. I was voted the Northwest Province Community Woman of the Year 2008, and in 2009, The Guardian Post voted us ‘NGO of the Year’ for giving voice and visibility to grassroots women. We also received a grant from UNDP for women’s empowerment and environmental protection.

The award has significantly contributed to these achievements and it has given me the confidence to address different audiences as a grassroots leader.

Gracia Violeta Ross, Bolivia

Gracia Violeta Ross of REDBOL (Bolivian Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS) received the Women Leading Change Award for her efforts to address gender inequalities. Gracia has demanded strong and equal involvement of women in local, regional and global HIV networks.

In 2007 I was lucky enough to receive the Women Leading Change Award, which provided $10,000 USD of support for my organisation, REDBOL. We decided to train women in leadership and political studies. Bolivia still has a concentrated epidemic and the leadership of women is not visible, despite HIV epidemiology highlighting growing infection rates in women.

Women living with HIV conducted a workshop entitled “En nuestros zapatos, nuestras manos y nuestros corazones” (In our shoes, our hands and our hearts). We also designed a training booklet with simple images and few words.

At the same time as our workshop, another one on prevention of mother-to-child transmission was run. Organised by a people living with HIV (PLHIV) group under the leadership of men, they did not invite women and instead flew men in as speakers. Only when they realised our workshops were happening in the same hotel, did they invite me to speak, as the National Chair of REDBOL and a woman openly living with HIV.

I accepted the invitation but instead of making a presentation, I took the 35 women to the meeting and asked three of them to talk. One was pregnant with twins, one had a child living with HIV and the other was newly pregnant. I told the audience that women know exactly what they need and that programmes would be more effective if we only listened to them.

The experience of the women’s workshop, supported by the YWCA award, will be used as a model for transgendered people, straight and gay men and young people living with HIV. REDBOL members have stopped feeling envy about the award and now recognise how much wisdom and knowledge women living with HIV have.