Introduction

Dignity and Wellbeing for Women Living with HIV in Tanzania (DWWT) is a majority women-led (not-for-profit) organization registered under the NGOs Act No.24, 2002 of Tanzania with a registration No ooNGO/00010023 on the 19th of December 2018.DWWT is an advocacy organization registered national wide and its members are Women and Girls living with HIV in their diversities. Our advocacy is based on evidence of a daily lived experiences, and it uses participatory process to address the priorities of Women and Girls living with HIV.

DWWT is an autonomous and independent country chapter of International Community of Women Living with HIV Eastern Africa (ICWEA) as such we represent ICWEA at country level. We are members of other local forums and coalitions such as including National Council of People Living with HIV and AIDS (NACOPHA), Non-State Actors (NSA) and United for Prevention-Tanzania

Our work in numbers

0

Regions

Reached

0

Districts

Reached

0

Projects

Implemented

0

Clusters

Covered

About DWWT

Our Objectives

  • Objective 1
    To build and strengthen the capacity of HIV positive women and girls to articulate their rights, demands and determination.
  • Objective 2
    To promote, advocate and build the capacity of community members in economic, social, mental, sexual and cultural aspects so as to ensure equality and wellbeing of women and girls living with HIV.
  • Our Mission

    To encourage full participation and affairs of Women who are living with HIV and AIDS in all plan and implementation HIV and AIDS programme and decision making.

  • Our Vision

    To have a society that respects involvement of women living with HIV and AIDS at all levels, ensuring their full access to health care and treatment, legal, economic and culture rights.

Core Principles

The paramount organizing principle of DWWT is to try to build linkages with other initiatives, within or outside the membership, and support them; with an understanding that the lives of G/WLHIV is influenced by other people in the society and policies that aren’t specific to their status, as such our work and advocacy is not limited to women and girls living with HIV only. The organization aims at collaboration and networking for better leverage.

Our core principles are;

  • To be a Tanzanian initiative and therefore must draw its strengths and credibility from being Tanzanian led and inspired.
  • To seek to be inclusive and diverse in its membership.
  • To ensure effective representation
  • To be open in sharing and learning from experience
  • To be accountable and encouraging others to be accountable as well
  • To be transparent and optimal in-service delivery

Thematic Areas

1. Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Women and girls living with HIV in their diversity have the right to healthy, satisfying sex lives and rights irrespective of our culture, age, religion, sexuality, social or economic status/class and race. To achieve this, there is a need for laws and policies to protect, respect and fulfill these rights, as well as appropriate services to ensure our sexual and reproductive health including that of our partners. DWWT is at the forefront of advocating for health care and legal systems that support the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls living with HIV.

DWWT is also at the forefront of documenting violations of the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women living with HIV around the region.

2. Access to Prevention, Care and Treatment

Access to treatment and care in the region still remains a challenge with issues such as stock outs. Many women and girls in need of HIV prevention, treatment and care continue to be left out or to drop out of services for various reasons. Due to challenges faced in treatment and care, many women and girls living with HIV cannot live fulfilling lives or even prolong their lives. DWWT is instrumental in advocating for optimal treatment, leading and undertaking research aimed at increasing and bettering treatment programs that respond and change according to the needs of women living with HIV in the region.

We advocate for prevention programs and services that are driven by the needs of women and girls in our community and services that are delivered with respect to the human rights of our target audience.

3. Meaningful Involvement of Women Living With HIV

DWWT envisions a world where Women and girls living with HIV are respected and meaningfully involved at all political levels; local, national, regional, and international, where decisions that affect their lives are made.  We advocate for a world where those in positions of power learn to engage with us in ways that are inclusive and respectful.

Women and girls make up an increasing proportion of the population living with HIV in the country, and rates of female infection continue to rise due to a variety of biological, social, cultural and economic factors.  It therefore makes sense to meaningfully involve women and girls living with HIV in the development, design and delivery of HIV programmes and services in the country in order to ensure that they are relevant, accessible and usable to women and girls living with HIV.