Girl Power: The Impact of Girls' Education on HIV and Sexual Behaviour

Abstract

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first diagnosis of AIDS. This year over one hundred countries pledged to ensure universal access to AIDS prevention treatment and care by 2010. However despite these grand promises countries and donors are failing to launch the type of large-scale prevention efforts that are needed to reverse the spread of HIV. The AIDS epidemic continues to evolve staying one step ahead of our attempts to prevent it. There are 13500 new HIV infections every day. One of the latest facets of this dynamic disease is the increasing feminisation of AIDS: in Africa where the HIV and AIDS epidemic has hit hardest 74% of young people living with HIV are women. HIV prevention campaigns often fail to address the increased vulnerability of young women because they fail to deal with the simple fact that many women lack the power to determine who to have sex with or when and how to have sex. The new challenge is how to empower young women to assert their sexual and reproductive rights. Of the possible solutions giving girls an education is widely recognised as the best way to provide this girl power. (excerpt)