ASWHAN train women with HIV/AIDS on life skills

The Association of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, (ASHWAN), has begun a series of health and life skills, empowerment training for women living with HIV/AIDS to boost member’s economic independence.

National Coordinator, ASWHAN, Esther Hindi, said that the training is targeted at master trainers using an empowerment toolkit to step down health and life skills to HIV/AIDS support groups for women across six states in Nigeria.

She stated this at a Peer-to-Peer Training of Trainers for Peer Educators organised by the group in partnership with UN Women and the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), in Abuja.

She noted that the objective of the workshop is to empower women living with HIV/AIDS amplify their voices, claim their spaces and expand their spheres of influence by developing knowledge, skills and confidence to exercise their rights.

“It also enables the target group to achieve economic independence and resilience by developing skills, accessing paid employment opportunities and addressing the burden of unpaid care work.

Speaking on the importance of the training for national development, project consultant, Martin-Mary Falana, explained that all those trained at the workshop are now facilitators cascading gains of the train for other women to benefit and boost their economic standing.

According to him, “the training toolkit provides a discussion guide for women living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria to use among themselves for development. It covers areas like their health, identity, personal development, business ideology and how they can boost their self-esteem among others.”

Speaking for the community of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), Executive Director, Voices of Disability Initiative (VDI), Catherine Edeh, said vulnerable women and girls are constant victims of discrimination therefore, building self-esteem, confidence and well as being included in empowerment programmes is key to their economic independence.

Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA,), Temitope Ilori urged beneficiaries to make good use of the skills and training saying that it prepares them for future challenges, while National Coordinator of the HIV/AIDS Viral Hepatitis and STIs, Control Programme, Dr. Adebola Bashorun, urged participants to make use of the easy illustrated manual which can be understood by users.

The states benefiting from the training are Taraba, Kebbi, Kwara, Kaduna, Gombe and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).