ABOUT US
Women and AIDS Support Network (WASN) is a women’s organisation dedicated to the fight for women and girls’ issues in the era of HIV and AIDS. WASN is a non govermental organisation founded in 1989 in Harare after the Society for Women Against AIDS held a meeting in Harare. Key to WASN’s work is the promotion of women’s and girls’ sexual, reproductive health and rights by addressing issues through gender lenses. From inception, WASN has advocated for women and girls’ rights. Women and girls continue to bear the brunt of many epidermics like HIV, Cancers, Gender Based Violence, and Poverty.
WASN’s programs have been designed for women and girls by researches done by involving the women and girls who happen to bear the brunt of the issues. WASN draws its commitment, selflessness, strength and wisdom from the women and girls from diverse backgrounds who come from rural and urban communities. WASN’s programs are community driven as the organisation undertakes baseline surveys then tailor make the trainings to suit the needs of the different communities.
OUR VALUES
WASN board and staff commit themselves to the following values, which become the guiding principles of the organisation.
Strategic Values
- WASN is a feminist organisation
- WASN is gender specific and work to realize women and girls interests
- WASN believes in and seeks to cultivate participation by women and girls in all its work.
- WASN is committed to timely response to women and girls issues.
Cultural values
In pursuing the mission, WASN develops and strengthens a work culture among its Board and Staff that emphasizes the following values.
Good governance
Confidentiality
Accountability
Transparency
Honesty
Integrity
Professionalism
In Zimbabwe, Health has been one of the most important concerns of women, girls, men and boys. In the early 80s major gains were achieved through joint and complementary responses among the health sector, NGOs and the communities. The gains were reversed due to the impact of AIDS, structural adjustments programmesand reductions in the budget allocationsto health and household incomes. Currently the quality of care has declined, health workers have left for greener pastures and the ones remaining no longer provide good consistent service due to lack of or shortages of medicine, gloves and edical equipment. It is, however imperative that all stakeholders continue to put heads together and assist each other to attain Universal Health Coverage.
The past 5 years have seen a wave of strikes and disgruntlement by health service providers as well as health consumers. Many approaches to attain “health for all” seem bleak as most health institutions have dilapidated buildings, worn out equipment, poor morale withon doctors and nurses, inadequate food and medcines. However, most NGOs working on health continue to advocate for provision of health for all in the era of many diseases and the population growing.