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- HIV/AIDS infection among women has also increased significantly. Under the Soviet system, motherhood was viewed as the main social function for a woman, even though her place in the work force was a given. Any talk or study of sexuality was strongly discouraged and information on sexual health was not available. While society encouraged asexual, puritanical attitudes towards sex in women, men were encouraged to have numerous sexual contacts as a sign of virility. Such attitudes continue to the present, making young women especially prone to manipulation. Their risk for becoming involved in trafficking and/or unprotected sex is very high. Sexual trafficking of young women and girls to Western Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the United States and Canada has become a devastating problem. With hopes of securing better job opportunities overseas and improving conditions for their families, many Ukrainian women are unknowingly selling themselves into sex work in foreign countries. Ukraine is gradually replacing Thailand and the Philippines as the main supplier of cheap female sex workers to Western Europe. Work conditions abroad for Ukrainian women often involve risky, violent forms of sex, mostly unprotected, leading to a higher HIV infection rate among women returning home. Programs for medical and social rehabilitation of female sex workers in Ukraine are virtually non existent. Those which do exist depend on foreign grants. Society is hostile to these women and there seems to be little inclination to provide them with any sustained assistance. When the matter of HIV is broached in the press, there is a tendency to define HIV infected woman as “lost” people, justifying the withdrawal of social support for them. HIV has additional consequences for women of child-bearing age. There have been cases where medical assistance during childbirth has been denied to women infected with HIV because health care providers are reluctant to expose themselves to the disease. While policies of protecting medical personnel correspond to international standards, they are poorly enforced because of lack of funding for the purchase of necessary protective wear. 100,000. Disclosure of infection is a very real threat. For women, it means a collapse of the family, divorce, loss of custody of children, loss of social connection. Most HIV infected women also lose their jobs and are left with no means of support. Mass-media reports suggest that women infected with HIV risk far more social condemnation than men. It has been reported that in some cases, HIV infected women have been thrown out on the street by their own families. The double standard of sexual behavior for men and women is largely to blame for this social response. The breakdown of the Soviet system left a gap in Ukraine's social infrastructure, and the reconstruction of society, a crucial component in halting the HIV epidemic, will be difficult and slow. Under current social conditions people with HIV/AIDS are marginalized and excluded. There are few self-help organizations in Ukraine. The only real organizational assistance for the HIV infected are the approximately twenty-five NGOs which, despite their constrained capacities and meager resources, manage to provide a modicum of sustained and active help. The most positive aspect of their initial experiences is that they can play a vital role in developing preventive policies. It is important to note that even if further infection were to be stopped immediately, those who are already HIV positive will go on to develop AIDS at some time in the future. It is, of course, impossible to stop all further infection. What can be achieved through appropriate intervention is slowing the rate at which the infection is spread and reducing the total number of people who risk being infected. For this to occur, the socio-economic climate of Ukraine must change dramatically and change soon. Editor’s Note: The author, currently residing in Kyiv, was Regional Exchange Scholar in the Kennan Institute at the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. While working on an independent research project, she served as Director of the Ukrainian Center for Research on Women. The statistics in the article were taken from reports issued by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and various Ukrainian publications. The interpretation of these materials and the opinions expressed in the article are her own. 20 ‘НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛЮТИЙ 2001 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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