New drive targets abuse of women with HIV

DAR ES SALAAM: THE International Community of Women Living with HIV Eastern Africa (ICWEA) has launched a regional campaign to confront and end violence against women and girls living with HIV.

Dubbed “Name It to End It,” the campaign aims to break the silence surrounding violence that is too often hidden behind stigma, discrimination, and harmful social norms. By naming and exposing these abuses, the initiative seeks to dismantle the systems and attitudes that allow them to persist.

Speaking at the launch in Dar es Salaam over the weekend, ICWEA Deputy Executive Director Dorothy Namutamba said, naming violence is the first and most powerful step in dismantling it.

“Women and girls living with HIV face multiple layers of violence from intimate partner abuse to institutional stigma and harmful cultural practices,” she said Ms Namutamba said it is more than a public awareness drive; it is a rallying call to expose and confront the systems and attitudes that allow violence to persist in silence, saying, these forms of abuse are not isolated or rare they are part of a larger, deeply entrenched culture that must be challenged.

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According to her, across the region, women and girls living with HIV often endure layered forms of violence that go unspoken. In health facilities, many face discriminatory treatment.

“At home, they may suffer from emotional or physical abuse. In their communities, harmful practices continue to endanger their wellbeing and limit their freedom,” she said She added, “The campaign urges people to stop normalizing these abuses and start naming them for what is unnamed cannot be held to account,” Ms Namutamba said the campaign carries with it a set of urgent, clear messages which is if violence is not visible, it cannot be ended, ending violence against women is everyone’s responsibility; nothing for us, without us; and above all, listen to survivors and believe them.

These messages are already resonating through community networks, advocacy platforms, and social media spaces using the hashtag #NameItToEndIt. One of the most powerful moments during the launch was the collective pledge led by Ms Namutamba.

Participants stood together to commit themselves to the campaign’s goals. In unison, they declared their intention “to see violence, to speak out against it, and to work toward its end.” The pledge was not symbolic it was a public commitment to action. But the campaign is not confined to a single day.

ICWEA is working closely with grassroots organizations, health institutions, and community leaders to ensure that the campaign’s impact reaches beyond the event. “Plans are in place to integrate the campaign into existing programs that support women living with HIV, while also building new platforms for survivors to share their stories and demand change,” she said Ms Namutamba made a call to carry the campaign’s message beyond the room and into the world.

She urged participants to take the message back to their communities, use their platforms, and speak out wherever violence hides.