The CHIWOS Movement: A decade of ground-breaking change for women living with HIV
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Trailblazing. Ground-breaking. Life-enhancing. The 10-year anniversary of the Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual & Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS) is reason to celebrate! Women-centered HIV care takes the spotlight as host James Watson examines all things CHIWOS with his two guests, Breklyn Bertozzi and Mina Kazemi. Tune in to hear what’s driving the enduring success of this landmark community-based research study, and how it continues to positively impact the landscape and enrich the lives of women living with HIV in Canada.
Our episode guests
Breklyn Bertozzi
Community-based Research Consultant and Peer Research Assistant with CHIWOS
Brekly Bertozzi is an HIV-positive mother of two and a Peer Research Assistant with CHIWOS. She also founded and facilitates a peer-led women’s support group in Hamilton, Ontario, and works as a focus group facilitator and a peer engagement coordinator on two other large-scale studies. Breklyn has become very passionate about HIV research, feeling both humbled and honoured to contribute to research opportunities that have built her capacity in many ways.
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Mina Kazemi
Community-based research coordinator, Women’s College Research Institute, CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network
Mina Kazemi is a research coordinator with the Women and HIV Research Program at Women’s College Research Institute and the provincial coordinator for the Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study. Mina began her journey in community-based HIV research at the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation in South Africa, where she was inspired by the aptitude and humanity of community health workers. Recognizing that solutions and capacity lie within communities, Mina is committed to community-driven and social justice approaches to research and knowledge translation.
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October is Women’s History Month in Canada and a good time as any to celebrate ten years of achievements for the Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual & Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS), a Canada-wide study with a mission of creating new knowledge that will be used to support women living with HIV in Canada to achieve optimal health and well-being.
Sex, health and reproduction… The movement, inspiration and women advancing ground-breaking change!
Women living with HIV/AIDS have unique priorities and needs that can be further shaped by social and structural factors such as poverty, marginalization, violence and gender inequity, in addition to diverse challenges in accessing care, particularly with sexual, reproductive and mental health. The literature is limited when it comes to knowledge and resources available to more fully address women’s unique needs in a supportive, inclusive and accessible manner.
…we've mastered caring for HIV, now it's what else do we need to care for? And we're realizing the different things now that haven't been addressed, and that we can start to address and start to offer holistic services for.
—Breklyn Bertozzi
That’s where the CHIWOS study comes in: contributing knowledge, literature and an innovative peer approach, CHIWOS seeks to put its research into action in order to further social change and justice, and to improve lives and care for women living with HIV in Canada. In fact, the study and its team coined the acronym “MEWA” [Meaningful Engagement of Women Living with HIV/AIDS], building off of the long-established principles of GIPA/MEPA. We are thrilled to sit down with two people from the study on this month’s show.
Women-Centered HIV Care Model
In conversation with host James Watson, Breklyn and Mina describe CHIWOS’s Women-Centred HIV Care Model and corresponding toolkits for women and care providers. They also discuss the core components of their community-based research (CBR) approaches and the hiring and employment practices that have allowed them to sustain meaningful partnerships with Peer Research Associates (PRAs) and women living with HIV. The poem that Breklyn shares about her experience as a PRA can be found online.
If you're doing CBR, do it right. So that means prioritizing the people you work with…understanding their competing priorities, making sure that you've created structures that are collaborative, giving resources to capacity building and career progression…So having that dedicated time and resources to make CBR your top priority.
—Mina Kazemi
