Women Making a Difference

Aberu Hailu

	Effective prevention of mother-to-child transmission allows women like Aberu to take control of their own health and deliver healthy HIV-negative babies. Source: USAID

Empowering Women for Better Health Outcomes

Aberu Hailu is a 31-year-old mother of four living in Hidmo rural kebele (community), 8 kilometers southeast of Adigodum town in Tigray. Two years ago, she visited the Adigodum Health Center to be tested for HIV, a disease she had learned about through health education. She discovered she was HIV positive and informed her husband he should be tested, but he refused. Two months later, Aberu became pregnant and found herself in despair. She thought she would pass the virus on to her baby; her husband still refused to be tested, and she feared the stigma and discrimination she knew often came with a positive HIV status.

Once again, Aberu turned to the Adigodum Health Center and the USAID/Ethiopia HIV/AIDS Care and Support Program (HCSP) for help. HCSP began providing comprehensive HIV/AIDS care at Adigodum Health Center three years ago. In the Ethiopian year 2002, 1,011 pregnant women were tested for HIV at the Health Center, and 27 HIV-positive pregnant women received appropriate treatment, care, and support after learning their status. Aberu quickly learned her baby could be protected from the virus with prevention of mother-to-child transmission services. She also joined the Health Center’s mother support group, where her fears of stigma and discrimination were allayed through the support of other women in the same circumstances.

When Aberu went into labor, she was at home in her kebele. A health extension worker (HEW), trained by HCSP, carried Aberu on a stretcher and began the several hours walk to the Health Center. On the way, Aberu delivered her baby with the help of the HEW. Having been well educated after her diagnosis, she was able to disclose her HIV status and warn caregivers to avoid possible blood and fluid contamination. Aberu is now the proud mother of a 9-month-old HIV-negative baby named Welde.

Story provided by USAID/Ethiopia HIV/AIDS Care and Support Program.

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