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Issues and Campaigns > Mobilising men
AIDS Agenda calls for more attention to be paid to the role of men in national and international responses to HIV & AIDS. Men and women's groups consulted for the Gendering Aids (pdf) research say that until now, men have been woefully neglected in the response to HIV & AIDS.
Currently, even those HIV & AIDS programmes that have considered the gender related aspects of the epidemic, have - on the whole - looked solely at how women can be empowered to change their sexual behaviour, access information or treatment. Little has been done to mobilise and empower men to help reduce both women and men's vulnerability to HIV & AIDS. That's not to say that there isn't some great work going on at the grassroots level - there are some men's groups who are actively working to get men more involved in the response to HIV & AIDS. For example men's groups in Namibia and South Africa have been holding discussions in bars, work places, football pitches, churches - anywhere that men gather, to talk about how to prevent HIV & AIDS and how to provide a good example to other men, by not giving into peer pressure about unsafe sex or violence against women.
It's often the first time men have been able to discuss some of these issues, and what they are saying is they feel very oppressed by some of the stereotypes about masculinity, about the way they are expected to act - and that might be violence or having multiple partners… The majority of men don't want to act like that, and many men don't, however there's huge pressure [from society].
(Miranda Lewis, former VSO Senior Policy Advisor)
They talk about how this kind of behaviour makes men as well as women more vulnerable to HIV & AIDS. One men's group in Namibia held a march on Father's Day 2003, which highlighted the problem of violence against women, and urged men to sign up to a pledge never to commit or condone violence against women. But this work needs to be scaled up to help the struggle for gender equality.
VSO's research also proves that working with men who have sex with men is also a vital part of an effective response to HIV & AIDS, yet in many countries they are subject to harassment or even outright discrimination. Organisations in India, for example who distribute condoms and information, have reported being arrested and harassed by the police for carrying condoms - and are sometimes even put into prison or beaten up.
Police are often not familiar with the laws relating to HIV & AIDS or homosexuality, and act because of the stigma surrounding men who have sex with men. Prevention messages in India have focused heavily on women, particularly female sex workers, as sources of infection - a message that has led to a fairly widespread belief that sex with another man will not lead to HIV transmission. AIDS Agenda calls for a massive scaling up of programmes to involve men in responses to HIV & AIDS.
For a more in-depth look at the issues raised above, read our report Men, HIV & AIDS.
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