The Focus on Women Kampala Declaration: Ugandan women call for action on HIV/AIDS

Doctors, researchers, governments, and world health organisations should acknowledge the crucial role of HIV positive people and their families in the effort to fight the AIDS epidemic. Without HIV positive people, researchers cannot do their work. That's one reason why you must work to keep us alive. We are also the experts in our communities about how HIV infection affects individuals and their families. We should be trained as lay counsellors and trainers, and to implement programmes, and we should sit on community advisory boards for all research efforts, including research on mother to child prevention options. We call on the government of Uganda to create a mechanism for communities to talk to the Ministry of Health about its plans for the implementation of preventing mother to child transmission, and to involve HIV positive people and organisations in decision making about how these programmes are designed and introduced throughout the country.

We have heard about nevirapine and other regimens to prevent mother to child transmission. We call upon the world to acknowledge that you cannot talk about prevention without treatment. You must address the numbers of people who are already infected. Health care is a human right that extends to all people, including those who are HIV positive. Women are not incubators for babies. We deserve treatment in our own right. Furthermore, treatment of women may be the most effective way to reduce mother to infant transmission of HIV and keep our children and our partners alive.

We have heard about the difficulties of getting men and women to accept testing and counselling. The moment that you say there is treatment, we will come out. With treatment and education, we can manage these regimens—as can every man, woman, and child who needs them in Africa and around the world.

HIV is not only a medical condition. There are many social services and supports that must be put in place. We call on the government of Uganda and international health organisations to work with women and HIV positive groups on the following key goals:

• Economic, social, and political empowerment of women.

• Implementation of strict measures against gender based violence, including rape and domestic violence, and child sexual abuse.

• Promotion of peace and good relations within the country and within neighbouring countries.

• Recognition of the voices of women whose partners are in the army and other security forces.

• A comprehensive plan of care for orphans and all children infected or affected by HIV, including provision of school fees for HIV positive children, who are no less deserving of education than their brothers and sisters who are HIV negative.

• A school based education plan that brings appropriate curriculums about the prevention of mother to child transmission and HIV disease to girls and boys, and young men and women, so that they have the information they need to remain alive.

• Effective materials to raise community awareness of reproductive health issues and HIV. This information should be made available in all languages, including braille and sign language, and should be made freely available throughout the rural areas, along with health services for the communities in these villages.

• Free infant formula to be made available to all who need it for at least the first year of an infant's life.

• Job security and training opportunities for all people, including men and women living with HIV and AIDS.

• Confidentiality about HIV diagnoses.

• Continuing research on simpler, cheaper drugs and regimens to help fight HIV and treat opportunistic infections.

We call on researchers to work in collaboration with traditional healers—to recognise their discoveries and to gain information about traditional remedies, rather than ignoring their contribution to the care of people with HIV.

Finally, people with HIV and their allies strongly call on all communities and especially policy makers to stop using abusive and derogatory language that belittles the position of people living with HIV. Stigmatisation is yet another obstacle to our fight for equal rights and access to treatment—we must all work together to combat it on every level.