International Perspectives on the State of the Science: An ICOWHI Pre-Conference

When scientists, clinicians, and consumers gather together to share their work, their vision and their hopes for equitable health care for women, they create an agenda for quality care for women. As Council General for the International Council on Women's Health Issues, my dream is that after each of these gatherings, their shared voice reverberates to eliminate aggression and violence globally.

Already, I can see how the ICOWHI conferences are impacting those who listen. After the July 8th Pre-Conference in Botswana on Gender-Based Violence and HIV Risk Among Adolescent Girls, two attendees, Kayla and Shira Kapito, shared with me their reflections:

As students, we are fortunate enough to be in Botswana attending the International Council on Women’s Health Issues. The Pre-Conference began this morning, Tuesday July 8, 2008, when we were welcomed by Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell from John Hopkins University who presented an overview on the intersection of HIV and the violence against women. Dr. Campbell discussed the correlation between gender based violence and the contraction of HIV and AIDS. She proceeded to talk about topics ranging from safe sexual health practice, coercive sex to child abuse.

The first panel spoke about how gender based violence stems from cultural customs, which promotes violations of human rights and gender inequalities. It is essential to understand that sexual rights are human rights. This panel further evaluated the definition of intersectionality and how it relates to the vulnerability of HIV/AIDS. Lastly, this panel examined society’s influence on the conceptions of sex. The panel spoke about how these conceptions of sex promote gender violence and how crucial it is that we try to prevent this cruelty. We found this first panel to not only be informative, but also eye-opening.

The second panel discussed how HIV/AIDS are a leading global health problem today, specifically in adolescent girls. While efforts to find a cure for HIV have been unsuccessful, the endeavors to prevent HIV through appropriate strategies and interventions have proven to be more triumphant. In addition, the second panel spoke about the impacts of sexual assault that the girl child suffers from on both a psychological and physical level. Researchers are currently implementing means of measuring sexual assault through physical forensic examinations. This panel was both interesting and enlightening.

The third and last panel furthered the discussion on child sexual abuse by pointing out that while most of our attention is given to the physical clinical care of the abused girl child, our focus should also be concentrated on the psychosocial care. In order to effectively care for the abused girl children, housing programs and youth groups have been created and have successfully reduced negative health outcomes.

As young American women, we found this pre-conference to be intensely shocking and thought-provoking. Although it is hard to grasp what these girl children experience on a day to day basis, it is essential that we begin to understand these issues so that we can help prevent gender based violence in the future.