International Community of Women Living with HIV

International Community of Women Living with HIV http://www.icwglobal.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 30, 2014

ICW launches its 2014-2016 Global Strategic Plan at the AIDS 2014 Conference

Nairobi, Kenya - The International Community of Women living with HIV (ICW) launched the 2014-2016
Global Strategic Plan on July 24, 2014 at Crown Towers in Melbourne, Australia during the AIDS 2014
Conference. Leadership from ICW regions participated to celebrate and present the ambitious agenda to
donors and partners who are key figures in pushing forward our plan.
ICW 2014-2016 Global Strategic Plan launch was fully supported by United Nations Women (UN
Women) organization and graced by Ms N. S. Despoja Ambassador of women and girls from Australia as
the guest speaker. The entire Strategic Plan which focuses on two central components: movement
building; and Advocacy Agenda will be to support our revised and robust new vision and mission
statements.
An important new development for
ICW is the fact that the ISC and key staff
decided that our work would be guided
by feminist frameworks which is very
new and exciting for us, said Jessica
Whitbread ICW Interim Global
Director. If we cannot push back
against gender oppression and align
with other feminist movements, we will
not be able to succeed in making the
transformative change that the HIV
movement requires.
Our Vision: ICW envisions a world where all women living with HIV live free of gender oppression,
ICW Global Strategic Plan Launch: Melbourne Australia
International Community of Women Living with HIV

International Community of Women Living with HIV http://www.icwglobal.org

realizing and claiming our full rights inclusive of sexual, reproductive, legal, social, economic and health
rights.
Our Mission: We exist to lead efforts towards securing and improving the quality of life for women living
with HIV. We do this by mobilizing, organizing, advocating, mentoring and raising consciousness on the
issues that directly impact our lives.
Our advocacy work for the current and next three years will focus on influencing policies will focus on 5
broad areas at the global level; sexual and reproductive health and right, violence against women,
criminalization of HIV and key populations, access to treatment and economic justice. Globally we are
going to specifically target three central and cross cutting issues; forced and coerced sterilizations,
maternal mortality, and the criminalization of HIV and key populations.
While the issues may be many, we can slowly target them to make big wins so that one by one we can
expose the injustices done to our bodies, hearts and souls, said Teresia Otieno, ICW Global Chair.
While the Strategic Plan and Advocacy Strategy might be ambitious, ICW is ready and has already begun
to tackle some of our most pressing issues. To this end we thank our current and future partners and
friends.

For more information please contact:
Arinolah Elizabeth- Nite, Communications Associate
icwglobalcommunications@gmail.com
Jessica Whitbread, Interim Global Director
jessicaicwglobal@gmail.com