The Association of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (ASWHAN) has called for sustained efforts in reaching marginalised groups such as women and children with essential HIV services to reduce its devastating impact.

Its National Coordinator, Esther Hindi, made the appeal during a Close-Out and Report Dissemination meeting of the Last Half Mile Grants Project, tagged ‘Children of Structurally Silenced Women’, organised in partnership with Love Alliance with funding from the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNL), yesterday in Abuja.

She said the project seeks to, among others, empower women and teenage mothers living with HIV to become advocates of their own health and rights through targeted capacity-building sessions, thus expanding access to prevention of mother-to-child transmissions in four states, namely Kebbi, Nasarawa, Delta and Oyo.

Hindi observed that “too many women and children affected by HIV remain invisible in policy, underserved in health-care and silenced in society.”

She added: “This project has not only advanced access to essential HIV services, it has ignited a movement. It has been shown that when women living with HIV are equipped, supported and heard, they become powerful agents of change.”

The national coordinator pledged that “ASWHAN remains committed to ensuring that no woman or child is left behind, and that structural silence is replaced with collective voice, visibility and justice.”