The Effects of Collective Action on the Confidence of Individual HIV-Positive Mothers in Vietnam

Women’s social roles and identities as mothers can be prescriptive and constricting. Young Vietnamese women face intense pressure to marry and have (male) children, putting them at risk of contracting HIV. However, being a mother also provides women with some status and power within the family. Although most HIV-positive women were infected by their husbands, they are not passive victims but take action to improve their lot. This chapter examines changes in the circumstances and priorities of 419 HIV-positive mothers in five support groups (the “Sunflowers”) across four provinces in northern Vietnam, starting with the first group’s inception in 2004 before the arrival of large-scale ART programs, followed by the foundation of four new groups in 2005. In this context, access to medical resources was both a stimulus for and a result of grassroots group mobilization. On first joining a group, most women reported feelings of worthlessness, isolation, lack of confidence, and social stigma within their families. Over time and following participation in the mothers’ groups, both women’s perceptions of stigmatization and their reported needs changed. Members accessed essential social, health, and economic services including ART, PMTCT, loans, and social and legal support through the referral network of the support groups. Most women also reported being able to participate in family meals, they were able to send their children to school, their health concerns rapidly decreased, and they came to focus on economic problems. However, successes in mobilizing access to essential services, support, and resources had little impact on the prevailing problem of individual women’s perceptions of their personal ability to make strategic decisions; group members still reported a lack of confidence and low self-esteem.