In 1991 an international meeting of the global network of people living with HIV/AIDS was held in London. Back then it was a gathering of and for men: their reality, the issues they faced were discussed. It was also them who made all decisions. It was called the “gay plague” as it was wrongly believed that the epidemic affected mainly homosexual men.

Women were left aside all discussions. No one noticed them. But there they were. Each one of them with their stories on their back, their questions, their fears and so many uncertainties. They came from different countries, spoke different languages, belonged to different cultures. Nothing prevented them from understanding one another.

They decided to get together: for the first time in the history of social organizations, a group of women got together from their gender perspective to provide a response to HIV.
The following year, in the International AIDS Conference held in Amsterdam, they presented themselves as the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW).

It was shocking. The women said: “Here we are! We have specific needs and we are going to defend our rights.” Because as Jeannine Van Woerkun, active organiser of that meeting and founder of ICW, stated: “Things need to be done today. It is better to do them right now, today, than to see tomorrow what has not been possible to do…”

Among those women, we remember: Gugu Dlamini from South Africa, who in her attempt to work to stop the spread of the virus said that she was positive and was stoned to death in her community; Mukandoli Chantal from Rwanda; María de Bruyn from Holland; Fiona Pettit, Alice Welbourn and Jo Manchester from the United Kingdon; Anita Bolderheij, who suggested the name of the organization; Hannah Jansen, Carmen Terrades from Spain, Araba Mercer, Bev Greet from Australia, Dorothy Onyago from Kenya, Kate Thomson from the United Kingdom, Cindy Robins from the United States, and Patricia Pérez from Argentina, current Global Chair of ICW Global.

And so the work started. It was difficult. Not only because of the distances, or the complications to communicate, but because many remained along the way. One day they were no longer there. Or they took a step aside exhausted by the pressure from society. Sometimes overwhelmed by the lack of resources. But they continued moving forward. They not only progressed. They grew. And the organization was divided into Regions that in turn worked with National Chapters.

ICW Global emerged to look for answers facing the desperate lack of support, information and services available. It was also born to promote the involvement of women in the spaces where public policies are discussed and where the decisions that affect the life of thousands of people who live with the virus are made.

Since 2007 ICW Global promotes the worldwide campaign MORE PEACE LESS AIDS. It considers that peace is an essential tool to stop the advance of the pandemic. And it has become the first NGO that broadens the social response to HIV that is admitted as an international partner of the International Peace Bureau (IPB). Patricia Pérez has been nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize in several occasions.

In 2012, it will the 20th anniversary of the organization. Today it continues to be the only worldwide network led and integrated by HIV positive women, girls, adolescents and young women. Currently, more than 15,000 women in 120 countries from the 5 continents are part of this organization. They belong to different cultures, they speak different languages, they have all ages, they profess the most varied religions, regardless of their economic or social status. The love for life joins them. It makes them equal. And strong. It encourages them to repeat over and over again: “NOTHING FOR US WITHOUT US.”