WAVE message for International Women's Day 2023

Since 2018, WAVE has worked with women living with HIV to improve and increase research in women through the established research networks activities in prioritized areas. Most WAVE projects are developed and planned over several years. In 2023, our focus is on Migrant women, Menopause Assessment, Healthcare Perception and ongoing education for Ukrainian healthcare providers. We will also complete projects on breastfeeding and HPV-related anogenital cancer screening and management in Europe.

Since WAVE’s formation, our membership has doubled. We disseminate information through newsletters and share calls for action to include all WAVE members in our work. In the last four years, we have published three papers and have three further papers in submission. This work is the result of collaboration between senior and junior healthcare providers and women with lived experience of HIV.

“WAVE in Ukraine”, an original educational programme for Ukrainian healthcare providers was launched in 2019. The project started as an onsite meeting and gathered 80 participants. Due to COVID-19, it was quickly adapted to an online format, keeping its lively and direct exchange of experience and knowledge (lectures, panel discussions, case-driven discussions). It is attended online by 150 people on average. Despite the war in Ukraine, the meetings continue, responding to high demand. Since 2019, one onsite and four online meetings were organised.

WAVE continues to host a WAVE workshop before the European AIDS Conference inference with excellent attendance and feedback. WAVE welcomes that sessions dedicated to the health of women living with HIV have increased to the point of being standard not only at the main EACS conference itself but also within other major international HIV conferences through the persistence and dedication of all those highlighting issues affecting women living with HIV.

Our most recent collaboration in 2023 is with European Menopause and Andropause Association (EMAS) and demonstrates WAVE’s continued reach and progress.

We would like to take this opportunity to celebrate all women, those living with HIV but also those without HIV, and especially all women facing a daily struggle to wear what they want, to be educated and to live a life of their own choosing.

We are power. We are resilience.

Signed,

Yvonne Gilleece, United Kingdom, Chair

Annette Haberl, Germany, Vice-Chair

Anna Koval, Ukraine, Honorary Secretary