Recognize, Prioritize, Formalize Grassroots Caregivers

This video tells the story of 18 African women traveling to Washington, D.C. for the International AIDS Conference in July 2012. These women belong to the Home-Based Care Alliance (www.homebasedcarealliance.org) representing over 31,000 volunteer caregivers in 11 African countries. They take care of neighbors and community members suffering from HIV/AIDS.

Although home-based caregiving women are the first responders at the forefront of the global response to HIV/AIDS, their contributions continue to remain largely unrecognized. Caregivers say: “We are experts. We are organized. Everybody talks about us. We need much more recognition. We need to sit there at the decision-making tables. Because whatever everybody is discussing is about us. But we need to be there, because anything about us, without us, is not for us.”

Through the Home-Based Care Alliance, women organize themselves to fill in the gaps where funding and governments have fallen short, and hold governments and donors accountable for making sure those funds get to the ground. The importance of their work must be recognized and supported, as they provide a link between those who are most affected by HIV/AIDS and formal health and government institutions, amplifying the voices of people living with HIV.

To learn more, visit www.huairou.org