Challenging female & male relationships? Try Salsa!

I love salsa dancing and last Sunday went to my local salsa joint accompanied by my friends Kamau and Francis. During the week we met up at our local drinking spot Zars Zars, and somehow the conversation turned to salsa which gave me the opportunity to propound one of my strange theories on how salsa demonstrates the challenges of male – female relationships.

Kamau remarked, ‘Nana you are such a good dancer’ and my response was ‘Thanks but I’m really not that great a dancer’. You are probably thinking that when someone pays you a compliment you should just say ‘Thank you’ and leave it there…you’re right but I had to elaborate and explain that the way I dance salsa and how well I dance depends on my male partner.

Salsa is generally a male dominated dance with the male leading and determining the style in which the woman and the man will dance. The man has to guide the woman with his hands, body and movements whilst the female has to be very intuitive and follow the lead of the man. When you are dancing with a ‘good’ male dancer, salsa can be so much fun. He takes his time for you to both get into the rhythm and almost ‘assesses’ (silently of course) your level of dancing so he will definitely not try and do a triple spin, dip and some other complicated move when you are only a beginner. Alas I wish I could say all men were like that! There are some men that the minute you begin dancing with you want to yell ‘Stop! This is not an acrobatic show, just take it easy’. There are also other men who simply do not know how to lead, you cannot tell whether they want you to turn left, spin or even do a basic step.

So how does this relate to male – female relationships? In my humble experience, the majority of men on the salsa scene are not brilliant dancers and when you are salsa’ing with someone who is not that good then your dance will not be the beautiful work of art that it could potentially be. Good male dancers know to fall into their partner’s rhythm and allow the women to shine rather than make the dance all about the man showing off his skills. Good male salsa dancers listen to the beat of the music and dance accordingly…they do not move to their own rhythm. Actually the best salsa dances I have had ended up as a partnership rather than the male leading and me following.

So what do the other salsa fans think? See you on the dance floor

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications

...and the Vice President of Ghana is not going to be a Woman

Yesterday, several of my colleagues and I attended the opening ceremony of AMwA’s Regional African Women’s Leadership Institute (AWLI) held in Ghana. The theme for this AWLI was ‘African Women’s Leadership and gender responsive poverty reduction strategies’ and the keynote speaker was the Honourable Hajia Alima Mahama. Now those of you who read my blogs know that I was rather excited about the possibility of Ghana’s first woman vice president and Hajia Mahama had been the woman most cited as being likely to fill that post. For those of you who follow politics in Ghana you will know that Hajia was not chosen as the NPP’s Vice Presidential nominee but the post went to the deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana, a man whose name I don’t even know or remember…prior to his nomination and rumours of his nomination about a week ago the deputy governor was a complete unknown in Ghanaian political circles so the question that was on my lips the entire time Hajia gave her keynote address was ‘How does she feel about not being picked as the Vice-President nominee for the NPP?’ and that was the question I posed in the Q&A session that followed. I have to confess, I did ask myself ‘is this a wise question to ask, after all it is an extremely political question and maybe this is not the right forum during which to pose the question’, but I thought ‘when else am I going to get this opportunity, and surely this is topical at the opening ceremony of a leadership institute which is grooming women to attain positions of leadership in all sectors of society’. So I posed a question and I got an answer which was simple and felt heartfelt. Hajia’s response which I am paraphrasing was ‘I felt disappointed, I had been one of the forerunners for the last few months and in the end I get told that Ghana is not ready for a woman Vice-President’. Part of what was really nice about the entire event was not only that Hajia answered questions openly and honestly but that she was there for the entire event including cocktails afterwards. It was good to interact with the staff of AMwA and put faces to emails as well as meeting some of the promising women taking part in this year’s AWLI.

The other highlight of AWwA’a opening ceremony was also the honouring of 3 Ghanaian women for their leadership and contribution to changing the lives of their communities. The awardees were Abigail Burgesson, Senior Manager, Special Programs at AWDF, Angela Dwamena-Aboagye, Executive Director of The Ark Foundation and Gladys Asmah, Minister for the Ministry for Fisheries who was also the very first Minister for the Ministry of Women and Children in Ghana. Congratulations to all awardees!!!

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications

Male circumcision: To cut or not to cut?

One of the most popular sessions at the International Aids Conference was probably the session on male circumcision (MC). The session room was so full that many of us had to go into the overflow room and watch the panel discussion on large TV screens. I was very suprised on several accounts. For one, male circumcision is very common in Ghana where boys are circumcised at a very young age, usually in hospital whilst still babies and secondly I had no idea male circumcision was being touted as potential prevention to HIV. My curiousity on Male Circumcision and HIV/AIDS had initially been aroused during the satellite session held by the International AIDS Womens Caucus when some women expressed dissatisfaction with the promotion of Male Circumcision so I thought I would go along to the session to find out some more. As usual, I will outline what the key messages by the different speakers were.

Alvaro Bermego from the UK gave an overview of the main issues including what is known, what is unknown and some challenges where male circumcision is concerned.

What we know:

* Prevalence of HIV in African is lower in countries where a prevalence of MC is greater than 80%.

* Risk of acquiring HIV is higher immediately post MC.

* Promotion of MC has started in Southern African communities with length waiting lists of people wanting MC.

* No direct protection for women from MC

What we don't know:

* Impact of large scale roll out of MC on HIV prevalence

* Whether increased risky behaviour may negate benefits of MC

* As surgery is non-reversible could it affect novel techniques in future that may be developed?

Challenges:

* Safety - adult MC can cause psychological and medical problems

* Will circumcised men be more likely to blame women if they become HIV positive?

* Many people believe it will cause a reduction in sexual sensation - although Alvaro has not seen any conclusive results to support this

* Interests/Resources behind MC is being pushed as a scientific medical bullet because the desired results haven't been attained from microbicides.

The second speaker Mogomotsi Supreme Mafalapitsai from South African spoke about the need for gender analysis and clear communication plans to disseminate information on MC as well as the need for MC to be integrated into existing preventation systems. Mafalapitsai also pointed out some of the cultural/religious aspects of MC including the belief in some Southern African cultures that circumcised men are weak. Some implication for MC affecting women oulined by Mafalapitsai include:

* Women being blamed and seen as carriers of HIV
* Resumption of sex prior to healing puts women at increased risk of HIV
* Women have the burden of caring for circumcised men
* HIV positive men are discriminated against as unable to understake MC due to compromised immune systems

A feminist perspective on MC was provided by Marge Berer who emphasised that partners of men have a right to protection and that MC is the only preventative method that does not protect men and women. Some of the arguments made by Berer included:

* MC as a preventative method would only work if there is a 75% prevalence rate which can take years to achieve. (In the Q&A session, a representative from UNAIDS Kate {didn't catch her surname)said that the prevalence rate could be as low as 30%)

* MC is useless for HIV positive men and untested men whether circumcised or not

* Are men going to be circumcised indiscriminately?

* MC is only 50-60% effective, less suitable options cuch as MC are being identified as there have been so few solutions. Imagine a condom that is 40% ineffective?

* Who was consulted before MC programmes began? Were HIV positive people and women consulted?

Berer went on to ouline the following proposals about involving women in MC:

* Women need to be involved as partners including information for couples counselling

* Women need to be consulted on policy levels with more funding targeted towards grassroots organisations and women.

Berer ended her session by saying

' The snip alone won't do it, there must be a link between the penis and the brains' whilst calling for the Pleasure Project to open an office in every country.

I have just googled the Pleasure Project. Let me know your thoughts on male circumcision, the pleasure project and female condoms (my latest acquisition from AIDS 2008)

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications

Re: AFRICAN WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP IN THE FIGHT AGAINST HIV/AIDS ‘CLOSE TO THE HEART OF NELSON MANDELA’

AWDF's participation in AIDS 2008 has been a hectic one. We held a press conference to launch our progress report on our HIV/AIDS fund. Our Executive Director was a moderator on a panel discussion on The Aids Care Economy and was also interviewed by ´Global Visions´, the daily newspaper for the conference and I did a radio interview for a community radio station. This was apart from some sessions and meetings AWDF had committed to attending. For the next week I shall continue to update you on some of the most inspirational, topical and critical information that came out of AIDS 2008. In the meantime I am detailing below our latest press relase on the press conference we held in Mexico:

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) at the XVII International Aids Conference held a press conference on the 6th of August to showcase the work being done by African women’s organizations in combating the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and launched a progress report showcasing the achievements of AWDF’s HIV/AIDS fund. Speakers at the press conference included Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, Executive Director of AWDF; Chantal Cuddumbey, Nelson Mandela Foundation; Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, Secretary General, World YWCA; Siphiwe Hlophe, Director, Swaziland Positive Living for Life; and Lucy Mensah, Executive Director, Women United against Aids in Ghana.

In November 2005, AWDF launched a dedicated HIV/AIDS fund to provide African women with the financial and technical resources needed to prevent, treat and provide access to all African women infected and affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. AWDF’s HIV/AIDS fund has disbursed over U$2,013,375 in grants to 107 African women’s organisations in 25 countries, provided grant-making and technical support for grassroots organisations, networks and support groups of women living with HIV/AIDS in several countries and invested in multi-year funding in order to scale up some of the initiatives of African women’s organisations working on HIV/AIDS.

The Executive Director of AWDF, Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi stated ‘African women are leading the fight against HIV/AIDS and need to be provided with the financial and technical resources to continue this vital work’. Speaking at the conference, the Secretary General of the World YWCA emphasized the importance of AWDF’s HIV/AIDS fund ‘as a fund for African women by African women who understand the complexity of issues affecting African women and HIV/AIDS’. Chantal Cuddumbey from the 46664 Project of the Nelson Mandela Foundation pointed out that the effects of HIV/AIDS on women and girls is ‘very close to the heart of Nelson Mandela’ which is why the Nelson Mandela Foundation considers AWDF as an essential partner in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The voices of African women who are directly working on HIV/AIDS were heard loud and clear in testimonies by Siphiwe Hlophe from Swaziland Positive Living for Life, (SWAPOL); and Lucy Mensah, from Women United against Aids in Ghana, (WUAGG). With AWDF’s support SWAPOL has been able to pay care workers for the support they provide to terminally ill patients and WUAGG has been able to establish the first and only multi-resource centre for women living with HIV/AIDS in Ghana.

AWDF’s HIV/AIDS Fund has been supported by:Comic Relief (UK),Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), HIVOS (The Netherlands), Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), The Nelson Mandela Foundation – 46664 Campaign (South Africa), The Sigrid Rausing Trust (UK), The Global Fund for Women, The Stephen Lewis Foundation (Canada) and UNAIDS
ENDS

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) is a grant-making foundation which supports local, national and regional organisations in Africa working towards women’s empowerment. AWDF through institutional capacity building and programme development seeks to build a culture of learning and partnerships within the African women’s movement.

The vision of AWDF is for African women to live in a world in which there is social justice, equality and respect for women’s human rights. To this end, our mission is to mobilise financial resources to support local, national and regional initiatives led by women, which will lead to the achievement of this vision.

Press Enquiries
Nana Sekyiamah – Programme Officer (Fundraising & Communications)
Tel: + 233 21 780476/7
Tel in Mexico:+ 552 941 5522
Fax: +233 21 782502
Email: nana@awdf.org
Websites: www.awdf.org, www.13campaign.org

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications

From Mexico with Love

I had dreams of blogging every day from Mexico with updates of the latest news from the International Aids Conference. I was going to be the Carrie Bradshaw of the development world and at the end of the night sit on my bed and blog away on my laptop. Well, those dreams have been thwarted! First of all I arrive very late on the 2nd of August so decide to lug my laptop to the conference venue alongside my usual ‘suitcase’ (that’s what my friends and perhaps my enemies call my usual handbags, well you never know when you might need a good book, a notebook, a sanitiser.) I reckon that since the world world is ‘wi-fi’d’ I will at the appropriate time find a nice café, order a herbal tea and blog. Anyway, I get to the conference venue an.d find that registration includes picking up your delegate bag which is no ordinary bag…my delegate bag is filled with some goodies…AIDS 2008 branded condoms, a USB pen, a really cute condom bag (which I think will serve other purposes) and the BIGGEST programme books I have ever seen! This programme book is about the size and thickness of 5 version of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. To make things worse I have to pick up two delegate bags, one for myself and our Executive Director who is arriving in Mexico several days later. So there I am lugging 4 suitcases around Centro Banamex looking very un-like Carrie. To make matters worse I find out that my laptop is not working and I do not have the right adaptor for Mexico. I am also showing my ‘johnny just come’ nature to season conference attendees who are travelling lightly. Over lunch I get chatting to some comrades from the Carribean and for some reason the issue of me carrying two delegate bags comes up. ‘Oh but I had to pick up my ED’s bag, she doesn’t get here till the 5th’ I respond. ‘How many times have you attended this conference’ queries Ms Carribean. ‘This is my first time’. ‘That’s why, in future you won’t pick up any bags for your colleague…’
Fast forward to the pre-conference satellite session organised by the International AIDS Women Caucus where I hear the inspirational Stephen Lewis ( I blogged about his address earlier) who is also a huge supporter and donor to AWDF’s HIV/AIDS fund. Some of the panel speakers include Nyaradzayi Gumbovonda, Secretary General of the World YWCA, Purnima Mane, Deputy Executive Director (Programmes), UNFPA, Allesandro Nilo, Justice Works, Susan Sippel, Elizabeth Maguire, President and CEO of IPAS, Meena Saraswathi Seshu and Neelanjana Mukhia from ActionAid International. I am particularly inspired by Nyaradzayi ( the world YWCA is also a grantee partner of AWDF) who speaks about the feminisation of the AIDS epidemic in Africa and the need to recognise the faces behind the epidemic and not just think in terms of statistics. Susan shares her personal testimony as a person living positively and the lack of space for women to claim their sexual and reproductive rights. Neelanjana talks about the women won’t wait campaign and Meena probably gives me the most food for thought on ‘Sex work, HIV/AIDS and Human Rights’. The case Meena appears to be making is that it is wrong for feminists to treat all sex workers as victims and that adult sex workers should be treated as workers and accorded the same rights that all other workers are entitled too’. Now as a feminist who has read Andrea Dworkin, who has real issues with porn (apart from the new female friendly ones), who thinks that no one out of their own free will chooses to work in the sex industry I really struggle to accept that some women will choose to be sex workers (apart from the new crop of elite sex workers I have read about in magazines like Marie Claire who charge £5,000 per session). So the question I posed to Meena in the Q&A session is that ‘Why will any woman freely choose to be a sex worker?’ Her paraphrased response is that as adults sex workers have the right to make their own choices. I agree with the principle of human beings having the right to make their own choices and I agree with Meena that it is wrong for the police and military to brutalise sex workers. I also agree that sex work should not be criminalised. However I have a real struggle trying to accept that some adults freely choose to be sex work. One of the great things that I have seen at the IAC are poster exhibitions telling the stories of various people living with HIV. Many of these posters have featured people who were sexually abused, raped, infected with HIV and had no choice but to turn to sex work for survival. The question I ask myself is that ‘having become a sex worker, should the emphasis be on giving you skills, education and resources to pursue an alternate career or should you be given workers rights’? What are your thoughts?

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications

Greetings from the International Aids Conference in Mexico

After a journey of approximately 21.5 hours I touched down at Benito Juarez Aeropuerto on Saturday the 2nd of August at about 8pm Mexican time and 2 am GMT. I finally battled my way through customs, baggage collection and porters to arrive safely at my home for the next week, the Camino Real.

On Sunday I went to Centro Banamex the location of the conference to pick up my name badge, and attend some of the pre-conference activities. Who did I bump into whilst walking through the expanse of Centro Banamex (in a slight state of confusion and bewilderment) but Lucy Mensah from WUAGG, one of the grantee partners whose attendance at Mexico was sponsored by AWDF. Lucy was with her new friend Phoebe from SWAN (Sudanese Women's Aids Network). They met at the airport and hit it off because they both work on HIV/AIDS issues.

I attended a pre-conference session organised by the International AIDS Women Causus which had a variety of very interesting speakers including Nyaradzayi Gumbovonda, the Secretary General of the World YWCA, Neelanjana Mukhia, International Women's Rights Policy and Campaign Coordinator for ActionAid, Meena Seshu from SANGRAM and Stephen Lewis from the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

The Stephen Lewis Foundation is one of the supporters of AWDF's HIV/AIDS fund and Stephen opened up the session by pointing out that promises made in Beijing regarding women's rights have not been kept and listed 6 key issues which I shall paraphrase here as I think they were important:

1. The feminisation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 61% of the 22.5 million affected are women, 75% are in the 15-24 age group. 80% of governments pretend to support women in their HIV/AIDS strategy but only 40% of governments actually give funding to support women.

2. Sexual and Reproductive Health were left out when the Millennium Development Goals were initially drafted and is an astonishing indictment on the men who crafted these goals. After intense lobbying by women's rights groups, Sexual and Reproductive Health was included into the review of the MDGs. Stephen also expressed the hope that 'when Barack Obama becomes President' the $30-$35 million denied through US policy will be changed.

3. UNAIDS report studies show that the higher the level of education, the lower the level of prevalence

4. Although the UN agreed that 95% of 15-24 target group will have knowledge about HIV/AIDS many young women still do not have adequate knowledge of the epidemic.

5. Young girls under 15 suffer severely from a lack of sexual autonomy which is most compromised in the Congo, particularly East Congo. In June 2008, 2000 women were raped in North Kivu. (This is only the reported statistic, it is important to remember that rape is a grossly under reported crime.) In December 2006, driven by recognition of sexual violence the UN Secretary General drafted the strongest resolution on sexual violence but in January of the following year granted an amnesty to men who had committed rape in Congo as part of the peace process. The result? An increase in rape! On the 19th of June the Security Council declared sexual violence a matter of International Peace and Security.

6. In the fall of 2006, a high level panel of experts recommended a new international agency for women to do for women what UNICEF does for children ( At this point in time I am thinking why hasn't UNIFEM been able to perform that role) and a new agency for women may be formed with a budget of $1 billion. The agency will have its own Secretary General.

Stephen ended by saying the '... single most important battle on the planet is the battle for gender equality'.

Look out for more blogs from Mexico...If there is anything specific you would like me to report on from Mexico, let me know and I shall do my best to oblige.

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communication