In commemoration of World AIDS Day 2007, Home-Based Caregivers and grassroots women united within the networks of GROOTS International and the Huairou Commission re-affirm our statement from our most recent Grassroots Women's International Academy which took place prior to the YWCA's International Women's Summit on HIV and AIDS, July 2007 in Nairobi, Kenya:

We, grassroots women from 15 African countries plus representatives from India and Guatemala have participated in a Grassroots Women's International Academy prior to the YWCA Summit to share our work and experiences and declare that it is time for the world to recognize and resource grassroots women's on-going caregiving work and leadership in the response to HIV and AIDS.

We, grassroots women working every day in our communities, have long been coping with the changing face of HIV and AIDS, responding by meeting essential needs and transforming development and governance processes, increasing their accountability and ownership by those most affected.

At this Grassroots Women's International Academy, we, home-based caregivers and grassroots women living with AIDS, who are organized in self-help and support groups, have counted and valued our shared contributions. These include (but are not limited to): direct provision of home-based and palliative care, psychosocial and nutritional counseling; caring for orphans; empowering girls; mobilizing resources, including developing innovative livelihoods strategies; promoting food security strategies to maintain the physical well-being of people living with AIDS; forging partnerships to secure and enforce women's land and property rights; leading support groups for the infected and affected; and running locally-appropriate and culturally sensitive awareness-raising and stigma reduction campaigns.

Despite the growing recognition of our contributions to reducing the spread of the pandemic and mitigating its impacts, the care, services and resources home-based caregivers mobilize, are largely unaccounted for.

We, grassroots women are uniting communities, re-building social networks and fabrics eroded by poverty and violence. We understand the linkages between gender-based violence and HIV and AIDS. We stand in solidarity with our sisters in Somalia and other regions experiencing conflict and violence and recommend that the voices and immediate needs of those who suffer are heard by governments, NGO and women leaders.

We ask our partners and supporters to join us by making the following commitments:

Our Commitment

We stand together in the shared values of grassroots women caring for their families and communities, but against these roles and contributions being detrimental to the health and well-being of these women, their families and communities.

We commit ourselves to supporting grassroots women's organizations as we struggle together for the empowerment of women and girls, and against poverty, and as we gather to put an end to the devastation of the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

Recognizing that good partnerships and power-sharing begin with us within civil society and particularly the women's community, we commit to creating and modeling demand-driven (vs. top-down) partnerships between grassroots organizations, researchers, health service and advocacy organizations, development institutions and donors.

We will advocate at all levels - local to global - to ensure that a minimum percentage of global AIDS funding is targeted directly to support community-led responses to HIV and AIDS, particularly those being led by women, and that measurable standards and outcomes for those funds are instituted in affected communities.

We call upon the women's community to ensuring spaces for grassroots home-based caregivers to speak for themselves in policy making venues and will allocate a fair-share of the research, capacity-building and organizing resources to grassroots women. Their unique and vital contributions in responding to HIV and AIDS need to be recognized and rewarded now and not tomorrow.

Therefore funds need to be allocated to support:

• grassroots women's organizing as the most sustainable solution to the cross-cutting causes and effects of HIV and AIDS
• Peer exchange as the most effective and empowering way to transfer good practices
• Income-generating activities that can help to sustain grassroots women's organizations and activities
• Community-led initiatives protecting women's land, inheritance and property rights

We stand committed to working towards fostering real accountability in AIDS funding processes through the establishment of democratic, transparent and participatory processes for electing representatives to local and national AIDS authorities.

Signed
The Huairou Commission - GROOTS International - GROOTS Kenya - Rwanda Women's Network - Uganda Community-Based Association for Child Welfare (UCOBAC) - Ntankah Village Women Common Initiative Group and CAGWEESA, Cameroon - Girl Child Network, Zimbabwe - International Women's Communication Center, Nigeria - Seke Rural Home-Based Care, Zimbabwe - Ray of Hope, Zimbabwe - Nakasongola Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Ltd - Girl Guides, Zambia The AFRUS AIDS Partnership - NGO Coordinating Council, Zambia - Rural Women's Movement, South Africa - Land Access Movement South Africa - AWARE, Uganda - Maasai Women Development Organization, Tanzania - Swayam Shikshan Prayog, India - Associacion Aktenamit, Guatemala - Ranchod Hospice, Zambia - Swaziland Positive Living - St. Rita's Widows, Nigeria - Mekdim, Ethiopia - Mirembi Women Self Help Group, Kenya - Kariobangi South Friends Church HIV/AIDS Programme, Kenya - Mama na Dada, Kenya - Kimbizana Self-Help Group, Kenya - Kapewa Women Group, Kenya - Iterambere, Burundi - AFEBEO, Burundi - People's Dialogue on Human Settlements, Ghana - Grassroots Sisterhood Foundation, Ghana - Save Somali Women and Children - Rozaria Memorial Foundation - Archealth, Episcopal Conference, Malawi - CORDAID

For more info write: shannon.hayes@huairou.org
Call: 718-388-8915
Or visit our website http://www.huairou.org

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