|TOP|Christian activists are calling for women’s voices to be heard in key decision-making on how to tackle the HIV/AIDS pandemic as they warn that the pandemic is being driven by gender inequalities.

Musimbi Kanyoro, founding member of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS and general secretary of the World Young Women’s Christian Association, said, “Policies ought to be influenced by the realities of the illness”.

Kanyoro, who was speaking after a coalition meeting this week in Toronto, added that it was women who are “living with those realities day to day”, reports Ecumenical News International.

The coalition meeting has developed a plan of action ahead of a major international AIDS conference also due to be held in the city in August.

|QUOTE|According to the latest statistics from UNAIDS, the United Nations’ HIV/AIDS programme, more than 17 million women are HIV positive – equivalent to nearly half of those living with the disease worldwide.

"We need to get the message about the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls around the world,” said Debbie Landy, UNAIDS deputy executive director, as rates of HIV infection among women continue to rise in all regions of the world, particularly Asia, Eastern Europe and South America.

“Gender inequalities drive the epidemic," she said.

Women in particular are victim to the global HIV/AIDS crisis due to a lack of power to prevent violence and a lack of access to education or information about HIV prevention and legal rights, says the coalition.

Barriers to treatment also pose further challenges to women and girls with HIV who also tend to shoulder more of the burden of caring for those living with and affected by the disease.

|AD|The YWCA’s Kanyoro added, "Women must be heard speaking eloquently about the pandemic becoming feminised”.

Yolanda Simon is from Trinidad and Tobago and is a member of the coalition set up by UNAIDS in 2004 to respond to the rise in women sufferers of the pandemic.

She claimed that it was the result of women’s advocacy that a recent UN meeting in New York had pressed for more resources to support specifically women affected by AIDS.

The People Living with HIV/AIDS founder added that it was the support of the coalition that had made sure that the voices of women sufferers like her were “not only heard, but listened to”.

South American AIDS activist and special consultant on AIDS to the World Council of Churches Gracia Violeta Ross stressed the need for church leaders to take action on the issue.

“Many don't believe this is an issue for the church yet," said Ross, adding that it was her main aim to change that attitude.