Welcome

Women across the globe face persistent social, economic, and political obstacles. As both a consequence and perpetuating source of these inequalities, HIV/AIDS creates a double burden. Many women become HIV-positive as a result of poverty, because of lack of access to education and health services, or engagement in high-risk behaviors in desperation to support themselves. HIV can drive women further into destitution by preventing them from engaging in meaningful work and/or by creating a substantial financial burden for medical care, not to mention subjecting them to damaging stigma and discrimination. In response to this complex range of challenges facing HIV-positive women, UNDP Regional HIV and Development Programme for Asia and the Pacific partnered with Thailand’s Population and Community Development Association (PDA), an NGO based in Bangkok, to initiate the Women and Wealth Project (WWP) in late 2006. As a regional pilot initiative, WWP promotes the socioeconomic empowerment of women living with and affected by HIV through the development of small-scale social enterprises.
NGO: a non-governmental organization created by neutrual or legal persons without the participation or representation of any government.

Social Enterprise: social mission-driven organizations that apply market-based strategies to achieve a social purpose.
As a regional pilot initiative, WWP takes a two-phased approach to combat poverty. The first phase is the development of sustainable social enterprises to provide financial resources to support the livelihoods of HIV-positive women and the activities of their networks. The second phase positions the WWP businesses as the lender for a unique micro-credit programme specifically designed for people living with HIV called "the Positive Partnership Programme (PPP)." PDA pioneered PPP to provide economic security for people living with HIV/AIDS while reducing stigmatization and discrimination in their communities; the program has been selected by UNAIDS for its 2007 Best Practice Collection. WWP is currently operating with HIV+ women's groups in Cambodia and India.
microcredit: the extension of very small loans (microloans) to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship.
With businesses as diverse as the incredible women that work and manage them, the WWP initiatives already have shown tremendous progress since their inception in mid-2006. The women's group in Cambodia launched a small garment factory that produces a variety of bags and garments. One of the women's groups in Chennai, India launched a graphic design business that offers comprehensive services in communication design and printing production. WWP’s newest member, located in Assam, India, chose to open a small sewing factory that produces a multitude of bags and garments using ethnic silk weaving techniques. As they continue to strengthen their businesses and build their marketable skills, the women enjoy many other positive effects from participating in WWP. WWP women have expressed increased confidence, dignity, and hope, as well as a reduction in stigma and discrimination against them.

At the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in August 2007, the initiative launched the "WE" (Women Empowered) brand. Products from the businesses are marketed under the WE brand, which provides a vehicle to promote the businesses’ wide array of services and products to potential clients in a unified manner.

(WE Launch at the 2007 ICAAP)
Strengths of WWP include:
• Providing employment opportunities for women who are HIV-positive.
• Stimulating an increase in economic empowerment and self-confidence by alleviating poverty.
• Developing a strong business mentality and increase communication and management skills among the staff.
• Providing ongoing vocational and skills building training opportunities for HIV-positive women.
• Offering a safe and supportive working environment, free of stigma and discrimination, that accommodates the unique needs of women living with HIV.
• Assisting HIV-positive women to become income earners and business owners, thus fostering socioeconomic empowerment.
• Decreasing self-stigma among the positive women's groups by providing education and by helping the women become self-sufficient members of their communities.
• Encouraging a healthy lifestyle among the WWP women by motivating them to take ARVs and accommodating their monthly hospital visits.
• Offering a strategy for project expansion that provides an increasing number of employment opportunities to HIV-positive women in the region,

ARV: anti-retroviral drugs, medication provided to fight against retroviruses such as HIV. These drugs work to inhibit the HIV virus from spreading in the body but cannot eliminate it completely.

Notes on Business page (don’t include this on the webpage):
• the words that are underlined in the projects description and in the WWP strengths are to be defined with the definitions provided below. If possible, make each of the words a link, so that when someone clicks on them, they are taken to a page where they can find the corresponding definition
• the pictures in this document, should be placed on the business webpage, roughly where I have them now, in relation to the text