Blog #6 - Women's issues in South Africa

        Woooohooo another week down. Honestly I ready for spring break! Any one else agree? However I think that I'll still be doing work for this class! Which isn't a bad thing. I can always take the time to get ahead. Things are starting to come together for me. Work is leveling out, I have more time for my school work, and I'm actually getting a decent amount of sleep, which every college student knows that sleep is extremely important to be successful! I have finished reading the book The Naked Truth and I must say I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot. And Marvelyn Brown so much credit for doing what she did and reaching out to others even when they didn't want to here what she had to say. To me she truly is an inspiration.

Last week I mentioned that I was going to spend a couple of weeks on children who were orphaned by AIDS, I decided to talk about violence against women who have HIV in South Africa instead.


Did You Know?

        That girls are more likely then boys to contract HIV? According to the UNICEF website girls are five times more likely then boys to contract HIV ("Gender-based violence," 2011 ). What is the cause of this you might ask, I know i did. This infection rate is mainly to do "girls' biological and social vulnerability" ("Gender-based violence," 2011 ). When the website says "vulnerability" they mean that they don't have the means to take care of themselves. They are dependent on men. Things are different in South Africa compared to the United States. Women in the states have the means to take care of themselves, in other words they can support themselves. In South Africa its not as easy. Most of the time they are dependent on a man. This makes them more vulnerable to the men because if they suggest safe sex or anything along those lines, they are exposed to violence such as "rape, and commercial sex work" ("Gender-based violence," 2011 ).

          What I found most interesting is when the public finds out these women are HIV positive, they are labeled the "spreaders"; they are also exposed to physically abuse as well as losing access to important resources and may even be chased out of their home ("Gender-based violence," 2011 ). These women are being punished for something they weren't aware of. They are just trying to survive. If I were them, I don't know if I would do anything different. Now I ask what would you do if you were in their place?   

Source: Gender-based violence. (2011). Retrieved February 21, 2011 from http://www.unicef.org/southafrica/hiv_aids_729.html.