Every day, about 7,000 people become infected with HIV, and about 5,000 people die from AIDS, mostly because of inadequate access to HIV prevention and treatment services. About half of all people living with HIV are women — 60% in Sub- Saharan Africa. Women are also affected as partners, mothers, as care-givers, health care workers.
To prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, FCI:
Advocates for policies and programs that offer all people, including adolescents, information and services to prevent and treat HIV and other sexually transmitted infections
Provides technical assistance to local organizations that offer sexual and reproductive health services and education to young people and women
Develops educational and training materials that address HIV/AIDS and help people gain the skills and the information they need to protect themselves
Advocates for integration of HIV/AIDS programs with services for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health
In Mali we are implementing innovative programs that link SRH and HIV/AIDS. Specifically, FCI designed an HIV prevention project for hard-to-reach youth who are working informal jobs but are not in school and another program for youth in schools and literacy centers.
In Bolivia, Indigenous men and women who live in the Amazonian District of Pando, in the lowlands between Brazil and Peru, are neglected by national HIV prevention efforts. Basic information on HIV and STD prevention is almost inaccessible in these isolated rural communities. To address this situation, FCI Bolivia, the local indigenous organization (CIPOA) and the district level health authorities (SEDES Pando) have worked together since 2006 in a large project which includes assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to HIV and AIDS in indigenous communities. An executive summary, demonstrates the importance of expanding prevention efforts to underserved areas. Based on these findings, the project team designed sensitization and training strategies to increase the knowledge of indigenous health promoters on HIV and AIDS prevention and care.
Working for Stronger Linkages
Sexual & Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS
Since 2009, FCI has been at the heart of discussions on integration of health funding and services — co-authoring (with prominent AIDS activists) Lancet articles calling for ‘a global fund for the health MDGs’; presenting to the GFATM Board on ‘financing the MNCH Consensus’; and advocating for integration from the dais at the International AIDS Conference 2010 and at numerous other venues. Our perspective in this advocacy work is grounded unambiguously in FCI’s core commitment to maternal and reproductive health. But it also reflects our long-term focus on the importance of addressing HIV and AIDS as a reproductive health issue, and of addressing reproductive health in the context of the AIDS epidemic. FCI has been confronting these inextricable challenges since the 1990s, in our capacity-building and adolescent education projects in Africa and Latin America and in our global and U.S. advocacy. FCI also has successfully built and strengthened alliances between MCH and reproductive health advocates and those in the HIV and AIDS community.
Article calls for comprehensive approach that places women’s health needs at the
centre of AIDS responses Half of the 33.2 million people living with HIV today are women. Yet, responses to the epidemic are not adequately meeting the needs of women. FCI’s article, "From PMTCT (Preventing Mother to Child Transmission) to a More Comprehensive AIDS Response for Women: A Much-Needed Shift", published in April 2008 by the journal Developing World Bioethics, explores the importance of a broader approach to prevention and treatment of HIV/ AIDS that considers women’s health needs, pregnant and non-pregnant. Click here to read the article.
Publications present cultural factors to prevent HIV among indigenous women in Ecuador
In June, FCI Ecuador, Fundació Interarts and the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AECID), released 2 new publications that highlight the need for HIV prevention among indigenous women in Ecuador. "Horizontes interculturales en salud y VIH" (Intercultural Horizons in Health and HIV) analyzes public policies related to HIV and indigenous populations in Ecuador from an intercultural perspective.
"En la intimidad del buen vivir" (In the intimacy of healthful living) presents qualitative evidence that helps to strengthen public policies for HIV prevention among indigenous populations in Ecuador.
Visit our publications section to view our complete catalogue of training and informational materials.
If all the available condoms in Africa were evenly distributed, every man would receive only 3 or 4 per year.
Each day, over 14,000 men, women, and children are infected with HIV.
Every 7 seconds, another person contracts HIV.
Every 11 seconds another person dies from HIV.
More than half of those newly infected with HIV are between the ages of 15 and 24. Women in this age range are three-times more likely to be infected with HIV than men.
HIV infection rates are twice as high among young people who do not finish primary school. If every girl and boy received a complete primary education, at least seven million new cases of HIV could be prevented in a decade.
perspective. 
