Liberia: Three strikes - Female, HIV-positive and unemployed

MONROVIA, 22 January 2009 (IRIN) - In Liberia unemployed women who are HIV-positive face three hurdles to job security: a tough post-war economy, gender discrimination and demands at home aggravated by HIV, say social service providers and some HIV-positive women.

While up to half of the estimated 100,000 HIV-positive people in Liberia are women, "little is known about how HIV is affecting vulnerable populations [women, youth, rural residents, orphans and children]", according to a 2008 government report.

The report noted that women and girls are "doubly disadvantaged by HIV and AIDS" as patients as well as caregivers.

Tenneh Jackson, 45 and HIV-positive, told IRIN she has been looking for work for one year. "I do not have energy like before so I cannot do hard labour. I was infected by my late husband two years ago. Since his death, all family members have turned their back on me. I am left alone to take care of my seven-year-old son."

Jackson joins other Liberians struggling in job hunts that often turn up little. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has called "vulnerable employment" a legacy of the country's civil crisis, which "subjects our citizens [to] inhumane and sometimes degrading work conditions."

But even those with jobs face problems in the workplace, Lucy Nike, 38, told IRIN. "When my colleagues found out I was HIV-positive their attitudes toward me changed completely," she said. "They avoided me and stopped having lunch with me. I had no option but to resign and save my pride."

Neither woman had heard about training programmes for HIV-positive job seekers. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria since 2007 has funded income-generating activities through HIV and AIDS service associations, including the Liberian Women Empowerment Network.

David Logan, the government's Global Fund grant coordinator, told IRIN that since 2007 more than 1,000 women who are infected with or affected by HIV have participated in job training activities including fish preservation, fabric-dyeing, and basket-weaving.

When asked whether there had been any follow-up to see how many women were making a living with these skills, Logan said informal activities are hard to track. "It is not like tracking typical trainees to see what percentage is hired. Most beneficiaries use these skills to start small businesses in the informal economy."

Logan said an internet café operated and managed by HIV-positive employees, also funded by Global Fund, is scheduled to open in the coming weeks. "Under the new Global Fund grant [US$78 million from 2009-2013], we will expand activities to fight gender inequity, sexual and gender-based violence, and unemployment faced by HIV-positive persons. It is all related."

Violence against women "continues to permeate society and rape is among the most frequently reported crimes," according to a 2008 government report on its HIV and AIDS control programme.

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