Dear Sirs,
MENA Rosa is the first regional network of Women Living with HIV, established in 2010 working in 10 countries in the MENA Region.
Over the years, the network has been engaged in the following issues, among others: advocating for the rights of Women Living with HIV in the MENA Region; raising awareness on Sexual and Reproductive Health; highlighting the interlinkage of Violence against Women and HIV.
The network conducted numerous trainings and capacity building workshop for Women in All Their Diversity, in particular Women Living with HIV.
In 2023, we conducted multiple encounters between Health Care Providers (in particular nurses) and Women Living with HIV in three major cities in Tunisia as well as Egypt to reduce Stigma and Discrimination in Health Care Settings and provide dignified quality services. We intended to duplicate this pilot project in other cities and countries in the region as per recommendations of the participants and our partners (UNAIDS Egypt and National Aids Program). However, lack of funds did not allow us to do so.
We documented stories of successful women living with HIV from the region https://menarosa.org/mena-rosa-stories-of-life/.
We are writing you amidst difficult times: decrease in resources, HIV donor’s fatigue, poor political will, increase in armed conflicts and displaced population. In addition, the decision of closing the UNAIDS MENA regional office in June 2023 was unfortunately taken without any consultation with the civil society to mitigate the loss for community based organizations and nothing has been done so far to support our networks through this loss. Despite multiple appeals from civil society, including MENA Rosa, no recommendations to other UN agencies were effected.
The closure of the UNAIDS Regional Office, in addition to the UK Government’s aid cuts on HIV and AIDS worldwide, and the potential withdrawal of the Global Fund from the MENA Region, will have inevitable short and long term consequences on our work empowering women living with HIV and reducing new infections. We are deeply concerned about the potential for a deadly backward slide on the progress around HIV in the region and the erosion of the regional attention and support for HIV related issues.
The UK government increased their pledge to the Robert Carr Fund, a major donor for the core expenditures of MENA Rosa. However, we are still facing large gaps in resources in order to expand our activities and cover the needs of Women in All Their Women Living with HIV in the MENA Region.
We are grateful in advance for prioritizing the need of women from our region.
Rita Wahab
MENA Rosa Regional Coordinator