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Benin, Commission on the Status of Women, CSW, CSW 56, food security, GROOTS Zimbabwe, HBCA Newsletter, Home Based Care Alliance, Zambia, Zimbabwe
The Home-Based Care Alliance Newsletter, published in March, focused on food security and how it impacts caring for people living with HIV and those providing that care. As a coping strategy, Home-Based Care Alliance members are cultivating crops and raising livestock on collective farms to provide food for their families and those they care for while giving economic security to caregivers who remain unpaid and unrecognized by the government and other development partners.
Though perhaps not immediately apparent, HIV/AIDS and food and nutrition security are becoming increasingly entwined in a vicious cycle, with food insecurity heightening receptiveness to HIV exposure and infection, and HIV/AIDS in turn amplifying vulnerability to
food insecurity. More and more, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is having a major impact on nutrition, food security, and agricultural production, especially for rural women. One key aspect of influence on HIV/AIDS relates to the ability of households and communities to ensure food and nutrition security. All dimensions of food security, availability, stability, access and use of food are affected where the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is high. Furthermore, good nutrition is very important for disease resistance and may improve the quality of life and effectiveness of medication of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), especially if they are taking anti-retroviral (ARV) medication. In fact, poor nutrition, or ingesting the medication without food, nullifies the benefits of the (pg. 2)drugs and may make the individual taking it even more ill. In many countries, HIV/AIDS medications in conjunction with special nutritional supplements are neither widely available nor affordable.
Click this link to download HBCA-Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 1
