The National Association of People Living With HIV/AIDS (NAPWA) has set up an innovative project to link Australian positive women via the internet.
With around 1400 women living with HIV/AIDS in Australia, many positive women are not in regular contact with their peers. Added to the fact that many face-to-face services for positive people are targeted principally towards gay men, this lack of communication has been a frustrating reality for HIV+ women.
Recognising this, the NAPWA women’s portfolio convenor, Amelia McLoughlin, hopes the establishment of a national email network will go some way towards eliminating these problems, and also enable more women to become involved in the organisation’s work.
“An email network seemed to be an appropriate vehicle for many women to communicate with each other and with NAPWA,” McLoughlin explains. At present the network is in use only by a 13-woman reference group, but it will eventually be open to HIV positive women nationwide.
The role of the network is to discuss and prioritise issues which affect positive women and to inform NAPWA’s policy debates. The network will also provide a mechanism for sharing information about new resources or research specific to positive women. A key aim is to reduce the isolation that many positive women feel and efficiently share current information.
“So whether you live in urban or rural settings, you have access to the same information,” McLoughlin says.
To consolidate the network, NAPWA is holding a planning day in March. This will give the reference group an opportunity to meet face-to-face and develop a program of activities to support and develop the network.
The women’s network is also working on establishing partnerships to work towards a national HIV positive women’s meeting, collaborating with other organisations in applying for funding. McLoughlin identifies this as a priority, noting there has not been such a meeting for ten years.
Positive women who are interested in finding out more about the women’s network should contact the NAPWA office on 1800 259 666, or by email.
