What has this ICCO partner been doing in the GDP?
Help Self Help Centre (HSHC) is an organisation working in the central Rift valley north of and around Nyeri, Laikipia and Meru. HSHC has been dealing with succession issues especially for households affected by HIV and AIDS. Their main beneficiaries are women living with HIV.
The organisation has been training HIV positive women and their families about writing wills and property rights. They hold Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) once a month on a continuous basis. The FGDs have not only helped women to deal with the effects of gender issues on property rights for women living with HIV, they have also functioned as a support group for the women. Through the interactions the women in the group stepped in to help a woman who lost her property due to her HIV status. They supported her with finances to start a small business to sustain herself while awaiting a court ruling on her case. Another success of the FGDs has been that some of the women participating in the GDP activities have managed to convince their husbands to participate.
Looking at the future, the HSHC has now learned that involving men would be a way of helping the women defend their rights. In the next round of the GDP the organisation intends to involve women and their husbands together. This is also because the biggest challenge for the HSHC GDP Project has been the men’s acceptance of women’s property rights.
For more information see: http://www.hshc.or.ke
|
