I thought I would share some good resources to spring forward yesterday, on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, highlighting how women are affected by HIV worldwide.

1. The press release by the Canadian AIDS Society encourages strong leadership by women in the Canadian HIV & AIDS movement, and argues that we need to address the issues holistically:

Depression, poverty, violence and injection drug use are contributing factors to HIV infection among women. There is an urgent need for more comprehensive and consistent prevention education programs targeting women.

2. In this press statement put forward by the United Nations, we see that nearly 16 million worldwide are living with HIV and this number is only growing. The statement also highlights that we cannot attack women's infections rate while simultaneously ignoring rape and sexual assault, as women's ability to protect themselves and make decisions about their own bodies and sexuality goes hand in hand with HIV prevention.

3. The World Health Organization put forward a statement titled, "Celebrations and Challenges on International Women's Day" - a perhaps overly-simplified yet nevertheless significant compilation of the challenges women are currently dealing with, making mention to the need for equal access to the social determinants of health, health research and technologies. HIV is not mentioned, but many of the issues highlight translate directly to HIV infection.

4. If you haven't seen it already, take a gander at the video "Equals" with Daniel Craig and Judy Dench, a video that seems to be making the social media rounds. It again does not address HIV directly, but it does address many issues that accompany HIV infection (such as sexual violence).

5. I enjoyed this article produced by Shameless magazine, highlighting existing challenges for women at home at across the world and demonstrating that International Women's Day still matters.

I hope that everyone spent some time yesterday reflecting on the past, honouring women today and looking forward as to how we can collectively address the challenges of the future.