December 1, 2021, marks the second World AIDS Day since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. For populations affected by conflict and crises, COVID-19 has held specific consequences for service delivery and access to care, including for HIV prevention and response. Interruptions to HIV service delivery are often experienced during disruptions such as civil unrest, elections, flooding, cyclones, and disease outbreaks. These disruptions may further drive the HIV epidemic by fueling gender-based violence, child labor, and lack of access to HIV services. As we observe World AIDS Day this year, the STIs/HIV Sub-Working Group (SWG) wishes to emphasize the need for adaptive strategies during humanitarian crises, particularly during the continued COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure uninterrupted service delivery to those we serve.
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On October 11, 2022, International Day of the Girl, government leaders and other key stakeholders came together for an Advocacy Activation Meeting focusing on advancing menstrual equity in Malawi. The event was sponsored by The First Lady of Malawi's foundation, Shaping Our Future Foundation, Days for Girls Malawi, and UNFPA.
MyHealth MyPriority is a program out to sensitize communities on sexual health with a focus on HIV/AIDS the use of contraceptives and lubricants, encouraging people to feel comfortable talking about their sexual health. Communities in and around Buea, have relatively low knowledge on usage of female condoms. MyHealth MyPriority aims at enlightening the population on the use of female condoms. Though abstinence is the first advice given out to the population, the use of contraceptives for sexually active people is advised.
In September, USAID’s MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership Project, in collaboration with WHO and UNFPA, hosted a technical consultation focused on maternal mental health. It brought together experts across the humanitarian-development nexus and reviewed the findings from a comprehensive landscape analysis brief the agencies undertook over the past few months. In this blog, the IAWG Newborn Initiative summarizes this consultation and calls upon the humanitarian community to examine the way forward for supporting the mental health of mothers in humanitarian and fragile settings to ensure they are not left behind.
Community transformation centers the work and leadership of Youth Action for Community Transformation (YACOT), a community-based organization advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in northwest Uganda. YACOT is based in the Odobu Zone of Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement, serving refugees (mostly from neighboring South Sudan) and members of the host community.Focused on serving the needs of community members from ages 15-35, YACOT leads SRH education, advocacy, and supply distribution. Co-founder and Executive Director Met Lim Gatluak said that, for HIV/AIDS, YACOT offers testing, basic counseling, and community-based outreach. Other SRHR programming includes the distribution of condoms, menstrual care management workshops, and family planning referrals.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), announced a new collaboration that aims to improve maternal and newborn health in conflict-affected countries through the creation of a multi-country research consortium. With funding provided by UK Aid from the UK government, the $11.3 million contract will be led by the IRC alongside the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and its university-wide Center for Humanitarian Health, the Somali Research and Development Institute (SORDI), and Université Catholique de Bukavu (UCB). The consortium will conduct research in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, northeast Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan.