Satellites

Identification of Needs
Women, particularly in rural areas, are one of the most vulnerable sectors in African societies. Despite this, they are also Africa’s greatest resource and hope for the future. 67% of HIV infections in Africa are women and girls. This is mostly because they have little power to assert control over their own bodies. Yet, when one teaches a woman new skills, it does not take long for those skills to spread throughout her community. This paradox of vulnerability and strength make women the principal (but not exclusive) target of the Sister 2 Sister network.

HIV/AIDS is quickly becoming the number one cause of death in Africa. While war and poverty exacerbate the effect of AIDS, silence and ignorance are the principal killers. HIV has begun to be a rallying point for local community activists because it deals with such a personal issue and calls people to break their silence. In this sense HIV is a good rallying point for activism. SHADE sees training and activism around HIV issues as critical to developing Africa but also critical to developing activists for more long term goals, such as a peace network. Train activists now for preventing the spread of HIV and you have a body of activists whose skills can be arrayed against any dehumanising power in the future.

With regard to HIV and women the following points should be borne in mind:

•    The number of women living with HIV has been increasing steadily over the past decade. In Sub-Saharan Africa, infection rates among women have now surpassed those among men. Women are vulnerable to infections because of biological, social and economic reasons.
•    Rape is an important disease vector, creating lesions in the genital tract that facilitate the entry of the virus. Women are at a great risk of rape.
•    Women are more vulnerable to HIV because of the social factors stemming from gender inequalities. Women are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection not because of their own behavior but that of their partners. This is especially true in the church where fidelity is a high value and using a condom in marriage is viewed as an affront to this value.
•    Women lack the power to reduce the risks of infection due to the threat of physical violence, fear of abandonment or loss of economic support.
•    Cultural norms often deny women information about sexual health. Even if women do possess knowledge, it’s often considered inappropriate for them to reveal that knowledge.

One aspect of poverty which exaggerates the effects of HIV is that of poor nutrition. This aspect more than any other seems so unnecessary when one considers the over abundance of food in the West. Even when people have enough money for some food, they are not educated in the kinds of food that increase one’s resistance to infection. This means that while many families may have then means, they are ignorant of the potential benefits that nutrition has in combating the effects of AIDS.

Another big player in the HIV pandemic is the silence around sex. Most communities struggle to address AIDS for the simple reason that they feel they may not speak openly about sexuality. This is particularly difficult when groups are mixed in terms of gender and/or age.

This silence is made all the more chronic by the silence in church. For most people in Sub-Saharan Africa, church is an important component of their personal and public lives. The vast majority of people in Sub-Saharan Africa are Christian. This means that mobilizing the church would effectively reach more people than any other single body. Not even the governments in Africa have the power and access to people’s hearts that the churches do.

For this reason the Sister 2 Sister network has defined these key focus areas in its battle against HIV:
•    Women
•    Information
•    Nutrition
•    Talking about sexuality
•    Mobilizing churches

As the satellites have begun their work over the last year and half, each has developed along unique lines but all have expressed a need to learn the basics of setting up projects, management, accounting and various other capacity issues. There is also a need to have ongoing support and connection with the office here in Cape Town. To some extent this need can also be met by linking the satellites with an agency working more closely to them, but the linkage with the Cape Town office links each satellite to all the others too.
Goals
The goals of the satellites are consistent with the goals of the Sister 2 Sister network and the Jamboree training, namely:

•    To empower women to educate their respective communities about HIV/aids
•    To link African women across political and social boundaries, creating a supportive network committed to understanding themselves and society in relation to HIV/aids
•    To expand the network of African women involved in HIV/aids awareness training and caring for people living with HIV/aids
Objectives
•    To establish nutritional programmes in 5 satellites (see below) as well as provide nutritional care children in the Le Berceau programme (see relevant proposal).
•    To establish a programme in the satellites teaching people about effective nutrional care of people living with HIV.
•    To encourage churches to be used as vehicles of breaking the silence.