The large banner stretched across busy Langata Road near Nyayo football stadium in Nairobi, Kenya declares, "We CAN End All Violence Against Women" as the traffic jam below grinds on. It signals the annual "16 Days of Activism" campaign - from November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) to December 10 (International Human Rights Day) - against gender violence.  This two-week global advocacy campaign for women's rights aptly envelopes World AIDS Day, for the issues of gender violence and HIV/AIDS are inseparable.

Here in Kenya, HIV/AIDS prevalence has increased in both urban and rural areas in recent years and the alarm bells have sounded. There seems to be growing recognition among policymakers and program managers that HIV and AIDS cannot be viewed and acted upon as solely a clinical matter. Deeply entrenched social norms make women and girls highly vulnerable to HIV - the central tenet of PAI's newest documentary, The Silent Partner: HIV in Marriage, which premiered in Nairobi last week.

This World AIDS Day, Population Action International is exploring a different side of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, one that many people might not even realize is an issue - the prevalence of HIV in marriage.  Our new documentary, The Silent Partner: HIV and Marriage, explores this very issue.  It tells the stories of women from different backgrounds who were infected with HIV in their own homes, in their own beds, from their own husbands. 

Most people believe that if a woman makes it to marriage without contracting HIV, she is safe.  However, the reality can be quite different. Judy Atieno, one of the women profiled in The Silent Partner, found out she was HIV-positive while she was pregnant with her fourth child.  She says, "You have to depend on this man for everything -- the husband, he pays the school fees for the kids, he buys food for the house... you don't question where he walks, how many women he has outside - for the sake of these children."

The world premiere of "The Silent Partner: HIV in Marriage" in Nairobi, Kenya yesterday drew a crowd of 131 attendees, plus 39 members of the media. The event was held in a lovely room in the City Centre's Nairobi Hilton, and was sponsored by The Centre for the Study of Adolescence (CSA) and Population Action International (PAI).

Participants included representatives from Pathfinder International, Men for Gender Equity Now (MEGEN), Kenya's National AIDS Coordination Council and the film's stars and director, Nathan Golon.