Mexico City (March 7, 2024) On International Women’s Day 2024, AIDS Healthcare Foundation joins the voice of millions of women in Latin America and the Caribbean on the winding road – still very long – to achieve safety, equality and full respect for their rights.
While political, cultural and economic progress has been made for women to accelerate access to their rights, much remains to be done. According to UNAIDS, women and girls represent a disproportionate number of people living with HIV globally. In 2022, 4,000 girls and young women aged 15 to 24 acquired HIV every week worldwide.
Women are more likely to experience poverty, lower levels of education and poorer health outcomes, and girls who experience gender-based violence are at higher risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). According to UNICEF, approximately 18% of girls in Latin America and the Caribbean experience sexual violence before the age of 18.
Teenage pregnancy is a serious problem in Latin America, as the region has the second highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the world: 2 out of 10 pregnancies in the region occur in women under the age of 20, according to UNFPA.
Faced with this reality, AHF created its Girls Act program, which works in 40 AHF country teams, to help young women stay HIV-free (or on treatment if HIV-positive), stay out of school, and avoid unplanned pregnancies. Learn more about this initiative in GirlsAct.org.
About AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)
Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the world’s largest AIDS organization, currently providing medical care and/or services to more than 1.6 million people in 45 countries including the United States and the Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, Asia/Pacific and Eastern Europe regions. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, (add country webpage) find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth (add country facebook, instagram and Twitter) and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare
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