A survey conducted by Action Aid Ghana with
support from United Nation's Population Fund (UNFPA) in the three northern
regions indicates that violence against women contributes to the increasing
rate of HIV and AIDS in these areas.
The research was conducted in six districts namely; Jirapa and Lawra in
the Upper West Region, Bawku and Talensi-Nabdam in the Upper East Region,
Tamale and Bole in the Northern Region.
The 222 respondents answered questions through interviews and focus
group discussion.
Miss Rahinatu Fuseini, Action Aid's Programme Officer on Gender and
Women's Rights presented the research findings in a forum on Thursday in
Bole in the Bole/Bamboi District of the Northern Region.
She said women had always experienced physical violence including rape
which had the tendency of infecting the victim with HIV.
The research, according to her, also indicated that some cultural
practices like widowhood rights where a relative took over the wife of a
dead man without knowing the cause of death was quite disturbing to the
fight against the HIV/AIDS.
She said the research revealed that some people had been infected with
the disease as a result of such marriages and the victims died in the
process.
Miss Fuseini said arbitrary dissolution of marriages without
responsibility and compensation put the women at a disadvantage especially
when the woman was not working as she could fall prey to a man with the
virus.
She therefore urged the people to be cautious in their relationships
since everyone was vulnerable to HIV/AIDS adding that people should desist
from stigmatizing those with the disease.
Participants at the forum appealed to the government to give the
anti-retroviral drugs free of charge to persons living with the HIV virus as
most affected persons were not working and could not afford the GH¢5.00 for
the drugs every month.