Women are very vulnerable to ill health in Africa. Low income and social status, lack of education and traditional gender roles and responsibilities are key contributing factors.
For example, three quarters of the population living with HIV in Africa are women between the age of 15-24. Women are biologically more vulnerable to HIV, but the key factors behind this disparity are social and economic.
Financial circumstances can force women into selling themselves for sex, and many women who are in relationships or are married are not in the position to demand faithfulness or safe sex.
Maternal death rates in Africa are particularly high because of the lack of skilled midwives, obstructed labour, unsafe abortions, anemia and malaria. Women in the Africa’s poorest countries are 300 times more likely to die from pregnancy or labour related complications than women living in wealthier countries like Canada.
Pregnant women in Africa are particularly vulnerable to malaria. Their immunity is low, and they often do not have the knowledge or the means of prevention.
Violence against women is also a key concern in Africa, especially in South Africa, which has the highest incidence in the world among countries not at war.
AMREF’s work with Women
AMREF promotes reproductive rights, including those that help women to make informed choices about family planning. In Tanzania, AMREF is empowering women to recognize their reproductive rights and encouraging them to discuss this openly with their spouses through the Counseling Discordant Couples program.
AMREF also promotes access to and use of reproductive health services, including obstetric care, family planning, and management of pregnancy complications. In Uganda we are encouraging commercial sex workers to practice safe sex and providing them with an alternative means of earning a living through training courses in tailoring, hairdressing and business skills.
Southern Sudan has the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. To tackle this urgent need, AMREF is training community midwives from around the region.
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