NPR's "Morning Edition" Examines Neighborhood Support Provided to Rwandan Women Who Contracted HIV Through Rape

Neighborhood genocide survivor associations in Rwanda are providing psychosocial support to HIV-positive women who contracted the virus through rape during the country's 1994 genocide, NPR's "Morning Edition" reports (Baron, "Morning Edition," NPR, 3/14). During the genocide, Hutu militia raped Tutsi women in a deliberate plan to use HIV/AIDS as a weapon. Many of the women remain hesitant to seek HIV testing and treatment (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 9/9/05). The NPR segment profiles an HIV-positive woman who lives in a suburb of Kigali, the country's capital, and is overcoming the stigma of rape and HIV/AIDS with the help of the Association of Widows and Orphans and Those Affected Or Infected by HIV/AIDS. The organization, which was started in 2002 by a family that returned to Rwanda after the genocide, provides counseling, skills training and a link to other support agencies that provide health care and income support to nearly 1,000 members, according to NPR. The NPR segment includes comments from a trauma specialist ("Morning Edition," NPR, 3/14).

The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.

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