As the violence has escalated, large numbers of people have fled these areas in the past few days, most of them south towards Goma. The interruption to treatment for these mothers will have catastrophic implications for their infants. It is a race against time and we must do everything possible to find these women urgently and link them to care. UNAIDS is working closely with national HIV programme managers, civil society groups, community organizations and all partners to support an emergency response to the current situation.
Learn more at unaids. To this end, the organisation provides psychosocial support to people living with or affected by HIV through counselling, care and support services. Femme Plus also carries out numerous activities in communities to free people living with HIV from the burden of stigma. It is therefore essential that people who come to Femme Plus feel that they are considered normal people with rights and obligations," she explains. In order to raise awareness, the organisation runs workshops to provide communities with the knowledge to better support people living with HIV, without isolating them or treating them differently.
Ms Omari also deplores the persistence of stigma and discrimination in health care settings despite the numerous HIV-related trainings for health care workers. In particular, she receives testimonies from pregnant women who have tested positive for HIV in one facility and wish to give birth in another, fearing of being stigmatised and treated differently. This is problematic as it can be detrimental to the provision of appropriate care for the mother and baby.
Ending discrimination and ensuring that the rights of people living with HIV are protected is therefore one of Femmes Plus' priorities to help them assert themselves and make the right choices about their health. The lack of access to prevention and treatment, and the low rate of people with an undetectable viral load, are among the shortcomings of the fight against HIV in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
To overcome this gap, Femme Plus works with community leaders to teach them how to stay healthy with HIV. Among other activities, it also engages with pregnant and breastfeeding women, providing them with the knowledge to protect their babies and thereby stop vertical transmission.
