In rural areas women are overburdened with care roles and agricultural work Explain how HIVAIDS in the family has increased the burden on women and how women have coped?

Answer 1

Uganda is an agricultural country (subsistence farming) in fact agriculture accounts for 90% of the population. Uganda has a population of about 23 million people out of which 15 million are women. Subsistence farming is mainly carried out in rural areas of the country on small family plots of land by the rural women (land tittles are in the names of their husbands). We normally refer to them as the basket winners or food producing computers. We call them the silent heroes whose efforts to look after the families have not been recognized at all yet in cultivating food they save lives and change lives! The little that they grow is put to home consumption and if there is any surplus at all it goes to the market to earn a little money in order for the women to be able to purchase other basics like salt, paraffin and also to take care of the children's numerous needs.

In Africa, Uganda was one of those countries that were hit hard by HIV/IADS since the early 80s. Since then the government came up with an openness policy to fight the pandemic. All stake holders have since worked together as a team these included; the government, NGOs, CBOs, Faith Based Organizations, individuals etc. Indeed since then success has been registered in terms of aw in Uganda still faces a lot of problems which have been made worse by this pandemic. She is torn between being player of so many roles and grappling emotionally and physically with the HIV/AIDS dilemma.

The women in Uganda, due cultural tendencies have not had a choice to stay alive. The African culture which gives men liberty to have more than one partner, men can wed in church but at the same time the Ugandan constitution allows traditional /cultural marriages meaning that having more than one wife is normal and not condemned.Secondly for the Moslem men, even where they cannot manage looking after the family, they continue to marry up to four women because the Koran allows it . This culture which empowers men to have as many partners as they can also empowers them to produce as many children as they want and in most cases they do not take care of them it is the women who will make sure that they eat, dress, get education and medication. It should be noted that in African culture and in particular Uganda many children and many wives are seen as a source of power and respect and thus even family planning is seen as an insult to the rural man. The women normally go secretly to the family planning centers and if they are unlucky and the husband finds out, then hell breaks loose, the man marries another woman who is willing to deliver more children and the women are afraid of that.

The above situation has lead to the death of so many innocent rural women due to HIV/AIDS whose orphaned children have been taken care of by their grand parents who are very old to do the digging in order to give them food and as a result the children have taken to the streets as baggers (street children)

Those women who have been fortunate to stay alive , most of whom are weak with lack of retroviral have had to stay on and till the land in order to look after their children and in most cases their husbands . Even in situations where women get to know their status, the men will still continue asking them for sex and refusal is taboo as punishments can be unlashed on them by their husbands. Such punishments include abandoning of the woman and her children, marrying other women or chasing them away from their homes.

In rural Uganda, the women work from dawn to sunset yet what they harvest cannot even allow them to have more than one meal a day, normally they have the evening meal of the day which is not even balanced because all the good food and vegetable that they grow, they have to sell to buy essentials. Their children go malnourished and as such even when the children go to school they are never attentive because the bodies are too weak.

The situation has been worse in the war torn areas of Northern Uganda, where the rebels of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) have been very brutal to the rural women and the children. . Where women in the Internally Displaced Camps (IDP) have had to take up their role as the basket winners, look after the family and at the same time bear the abuse of a husband who will still take on another wife even under such situations. Women have contracted HIV/Aids both from their husbands and from being raped by the rebels. The women have been traumatized but life has to go on. Currently the government has tries to take families back to their homes so that they can lead normal lives but for the rural woman normal life means toiling away on the land from morning till when the cows come home (evening)

There is an urgent need to carefully re examine the fruitless , over burdened roles of the rural woman who is currently playing the roles of ; a miserable mother , a miserable cultivator/ bread winner ,a miserable wife without rights to a role of a proud mother , a knowledgeable wife who knows her rights, a meaningful income contributor and a saver.

This new product of a woman will go a long way in improving her life, that of her children the family and the community in general with self esteem and confidence.

Some charity organizations like the one I represent (Foundation for women and youth in development) FOWAYODE have thought of the following to help improve the lives of the rural women-

-First and fore most to sensitize them about their rights and build confidence in them in order for them to be able to face upcoming challenges

-we should come up with small income generating activities for the rural women on top of agriculture in order to subsides their income. These would include: poultry, piggery, goat rearing, snack making, tailoring, weaving, baking etc.

-sensitizing and encouraging the women to go for testing of HIV/AIDS in order for them to know their status

-sensitizing them on simple accounting skills and a saving culture. Encourage them to pull the little resources they have by saving it through the micro finance institutions in their localities.. When the savings have grown they can trade together as a group for example buying maize seeds and selling them to the World food programme and other buyer's etc

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There is so much to be done to help the rural woman who is so disadvantaged because of the backward cultural tendencies and primitive agricultural methods which have been aggravated with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We believe that a woman is the history, the present, the future and the backbone of any nation since they give birth to children, they nurture them and see them grow into citizens who take up roles for a nation's development and for that programmes should be formulated to protect them and also improve their lives for they have so many hats (mothers, wives and bread earners.)

Answer 2

HIV/AIDS in the family can increase the burden on women in rural areas as they often take on the role of primary caregivers for sick family members, in addition to their existing responsibilities. This can result in emotional stress, financial strain, and physical exhaustion for women. To cope, women may form support networks with other community members, seek assistance from religious or non-profit organizations, or engage in income-generating activities to provide for their families while balancing caregiving responsibilities.