CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY
5.4 Recommendations
• Women's plight cannot be divorced from the context in which it originates.
Addressing these women's issues and empowering them must be done in context, considering all the factors involved. This proposed approach is also based on the notion that behaviour does not occur in a vacuum but in interaction with other people and the environment. Instead of expecting one stakeholder to address the situation, a multi-sectoral approach should be adopted in order to address the situation in a holistic manner.
Like Setel (1996:1176), I agree that factors such as social stratification, gender relations, and direct experiences with the disease, the whole belief system and behaviour that play a role in the women's situation must be addressed in further discussions of the context and meaning of the epidemic.
• Although the study was carried out in a rural area in KwaZulu-Natal, the issues of married women having secret lovers other than their husbands has wider implications. For the empowerment of women initiatives to succeed, they cannot be given only to individuals but must be available to
all the women in a community. The environment should provide support for the development of women. For instance, women stricken by poverty should make use of indigenous available and accessible environmental resources like grass, wood and soil. Women cannot do this as individuals but as groups within a community. Mobilization of women by traditional structures, for instance, may help women to engage in income generating projects and become economically independent instead of being dependent on their male partners (whether husbands or secret lovers) for income.
Income generation projects also occupy women and keep them busy, thereby preventing them from engaging in negative activities. They also have no time for boredom, loneliness and feelings of worthlessness. Such projects will give women a sense of purpose and therefore empower them to become self reliant.
Involvement in such projects depends on the knowledge and skills the women have. Even if women do have access to information and services, experience shows that female dependence on males cannot be completely eradicated.
• Women empowerment initiatives should include making women aware ot their rights as women. They will become empowered to exercise the right
to refuse sexual intercourse without protection. Women empowerment should, however, be balanced with efforts to deal with men's increasing feelings of insecurity and marginalization. The traditional structures can play a major role in this regard by encouraging Community Based Organisations within the community, which would reduce instead of perpetuate gender discriminatory cultural practices. Izinduna, the Kraal Heads, could bring men together to change their attitudes towards sex- stereotyping roles in order to mitigate the impact of such gender practices on sexual behavior.
• Widow inheritance is one of the cultural practices that perpetuate the escalation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Traditional structures could also help eradicate such practices when the people have adequate knowledge of how HIV is transmitted.
• As an integral part of the community, religion could also play a major role in the mobilization of all. segments of the community. Ministers of religion and other authorities in the church could set up groups of their members to impart awareness of gender role stereotypes, HIV/AIDS or any topic of interest according to the needs of their congregation. This openness could ease the tension that exists between the sexes and could allow people to talk more freely about sexual matters, diseases and so facilitate good communication between men and women. If such debates occur within the
church, discussions of this nature could continue even at home where married couples could engage freely in discussions related to their sexual health. HIV/AIDS would no longer be an issue and the stigma of the disease would gradually disappear.
• As elsewhere in the world, reproductive health issues, like HIV/AIDS and people's behaviour, are at the forefront of public health discussions. In the 2nd PACT HIV/AIDS Conference in Cape Town, South Africa (2006) sexual behavior was regarded as a major challenge that contributed to the rise of HIV/AIDS statistics. Stakeholders were urged to promote behaviour change in both females and males, old and young.
• The health services should provide adequate information regarding high risk factors women are exposed to. Health providers should also teach women how to live positively by eating nutritious foods and engaging in low risk behaviour. The focus of health provision has been on women's reproductive health so that there are women's clinics and doctors that specialize in women's conditions. This approach is biased and discriminates against men. Men's clinics and doctors should also be provided for men, as men sometimes encounter reproductive health problems that render them impotent. Having such clinics would help men to feel relaxed talking about their sexual problems not only to health workers but also then to their female sexual partners.
While the health service provides education on healthy nutrition, the Department of Agriculture may provide education to women on how to grow healthy food. The Department could also provide resources like seeds of different nutritious foods so that they do not plant maize only (staple food), but also vegetables to keep them healthy. Equipment and markets at which the women's excess agricultural products could be sold could also be provided. These efforts would keep women healthy so that the progression of HIV into AIDS stage and mortality would be delayed.
As women do not have money to purchase such food they should be told what to plant and the kind of animals to stock for healthy food.
The Local Economic Development (LED) programme of the Department of Social Development promotes initiatives to encourage development.
These initiatives could include the mobilization of rural women into associations or cooperatives, so that they do not only produce for their household's consumption but also for economic gain. The Department could also establish Non-governmental Organizations providing both life and economic skills to the communities so that women are encouraged to start different income generating projects. In such co-operatives some of the community members could be tending vegetable gardens, while others are engaged in making craft items for sale.
Clubbing together has worked in the past and would help unemployed rural women to engage in bulk buying of their raw material as well as food and seeds. Women could combine to hire taxis every month to assist them to find markets for their excess products. Working together like this could increase co-operation, openness and mutual confidence among the community. Both men and women need economic empowerment so that both genders are able to work together and see themselves as allies instead of competitors.
The South African Government has introduced a structural intervention in housing that has changed men-only hostels into family hostels where the families are allowed to live together. Though this has been a slow process, it has started working. Cultural beliefs that marginalize a woman who leaves a rural home to live with her husband in the city may make women reluctant to live in the hostels. This reluctance may be coupled with negative perceptions that parents have of the impact that urban life could have on the upbringing of their children. To avoid these perceptions, the development could be brought to the rural areas, where factories could be built within the rural communities, thus keeping families united, minimizing the vulnerability of women, and creating an interdependent functioning community.
Many women in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal are illiterate, which adds to their marginalized state further, causing them to be more vulnerable than educated women with careers. Providing these women with basic education on top of the factors mentioned above, could empower them to become self-reliant. The Department of Education could provide programmes on adult education from which women could receive the writing and reading skills necessary to write their own proposals and business plans in their own language.
The South African Government has constructive policies on the implementation of programmes and projects to address various issues and meet the needs of the South African people. In the context of urban bias that prevails, these programmes are usually implemented in the urban areas among people who can make ends meet. People in the rural areas are usually left out and the gap between those who are employed and the very poor enlarges. It is recommended that the policy makers see to it that all policies, programmes and projects reach even the remotest areas of the rural communities. Women in the rural areas are aware of the existence of such policies, programmes and projects but they have never filtered down to the rural areas.