Raising Malawi Joins with Partners In Health to Fight HIV / AIDS

By Raising Malawi on 08.31.10

To date, a majority of the response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Malawi has focused on treating women and children. Concentrating medical care on this vulnerable group is a smart, effective policy that will prove crucial to stopping the spread of the virus.

However, these programs often fail to reach sex workers, a high-risk population that must be engaged if we are to have any hope of containing the spread of the virus. This is problematic in countries mired in poverty and instability, where a sizable number of defenseless girls and women can become trapped in this nefarious trade, often against their wills.

Empowering Women to Leave the Sex Trade

To address this gap in fighting HIV/AIDS, Raising Malawi joined Partners In Health (PIH), whose founders include Paul Farmer, in supporting a Women's Empowerment Group at Zalewa, a trading center built on a heavily traveled stretch of road connecting Lilongwe and Blantyre, two of Malawi's major cities.

The program at Zalewa offers commercial sex worker the resources necessary to transition into safer lines of work, in addition to much-needed medical testing and treatment. The health programs available to women include: family planning visits, cervical cancer screening and treatment, syphilis testing, HIV testing, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) treatment. Additionally, women can obtain vocational training; work at Mtendere, an onsite restaurant co-op run by former sex workers; or take English courses.

Zalewa employees and volunteers have been sending Raising Malawi quarterly reports since we began supporting their work. The news has been encouraging—progress that we would qualify as a success.

Success of the Women's Empowerment Group at Zalewa

The developments over the past two quarters include:

• Contacts on the ground call the restaurant a great success, generating upwards of $1,300 a month.
• Because revenue has been so good, the restaurant workers decided to invest 20% of the profits back into the empowerment program and are considering expanding.
• There were 417 to the family planning clinic, an encouraging turnout.
• Women continue using screening programs and seeking out treatment when needed.
• The empowerment center has started an agricultural training program, planting soybeans and other crops.

In addition to this work, Partners In Health and the Women's Empowerment Group continue to work with the Social Welfare Department to get the group recognized as a Community Based Organization. Recognition will increase cooperation between PIH and the group.

Read this inspiring story about Zalewa on the Partners In Health site.