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Ludfine Anyango, a 34-year old woman from Kenya, was diagnosed HIV-positive eight years ago. She was married at the time. Her husband died from the disease. It was then she suspected that she too might be infected. She was.

Since then, she has never given up hope and today serves as a role model for many African women like her who have contracted HIV while married.

"Prevention methods recommending abstinence, being faithful and using a condom don't work since they are dependent on men," said Anyango at a press conference launching the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS in London. "Men bring the virus into the home," she added.

Anyango is a member of the recently formed Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), a group of individuals and organizations dedicated to improving prevention and treatment for young women and girls with HIV/AIDS throughout the world. She also serves as national HIV/AIDS coordinator at the international development agency ActionAid based in Kenya.

The AIDS activist hopes women in her community in Nairobi and elsewhere in her country will soon adopt female-controlled HIV prevention methods, such as using female condoms and microbicides -- gels, sponges and time-released suppositories.

Monday's meeting of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS aims to put these methods into action, thus empowering women to take control of their own circumstances instead of having to rely on male cooperation.

Currently, the female condom is too expensive and not accessible enough for widespread use. "The female condom should be mass produced -- we should really be on it," said actress Emma Thompson, who joined the coalition after meeting AIDS activists and survivors during a trip to Uganda and Mozambique as an ambassador for ActionAid.

Another issue the coalition aims to tackle is the provision of medical treatment for women who need it but cannot afford it.

"I have a job so I can get treatment. But there are many out there who cannot afford it," Anyango said.

Besides promoting female-controlled HIV prevention methods and equal access to AIDS treatment, the coalition will also address societal and legal inequities that increase women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, such as inequitable property rights that make it tough for women to leave their husbands even if they are aware he is HIV positive.

Anyango -- who has two children, one of her own and an AIDS orphan she recently adopted -- emphasized the important role she believes the Coalition will play in bringing hope and support to those impacted by AIDS. If she had not found a walk-in clinic in Nairobi that supported her throughout the initial stages of coping with her illness, she would not be here today.

HIV positive women like Anyango will play a crucial role in making the efforts of the coalition successful as Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and participant in the Coalition, stressed in her presentation during the launch.

As will women in political roles. "It's only when you have a critical mass of women in politics that you get women's issues attacked," Robinson said.

Half of the estimated 40 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS are women. In Africa, twice as many young females are infected with HIV than men.

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