HIV is the leading cause of death for women of reproductive age worldwide (UN). In Ethiopia, only twenty percent of women and 38% of men age 15-49 have comprehensive knowledge about the modes of HIV transmission and prevention. One in ten girls has first sexual experience before the age of 15.
At the same time, the proportion of people getting tested on HIV is very low. Only one fifth of people got tested in the last 12 months.
Women are at higher risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. This risk is further increase by violence and harmful attitudes where 30 percent of women believe that women cannot refuse sex with her husband if she knows he had sex with other woman, and 40 percent believe that she cannot ask him to wear a condom if she knows he has a sexually transmitted disease. Only 45 percent of women can say no to their husbands if they do not want to have sex and only 30 percent can ask them to wear a condom.
