Land area: 181,035 Km²

Population inter-censal population survey 2004: 13,091,000

Population growth rate 2004: 1.81%

Life expectancy at birth year 2001: 57.4

It is estimated that there are 123,100 people living with HIV/AIDS, while the official adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is 1.9% (19 of every 1,000 people)

ABOUT CAMBODIA

WOMEN IN CAMBODIA

In Cambodia, women account for approximately 53% of the population. In rural areas an estimated one in four households are headed by a woman, and in Phnom Penh one in three. Cambodia's women are often held mainly responsible for family survival; they run the bulk of small businesses in Cambodia, they find and prepare food, and they care for sick and older relatives. But society offers women a huge burden of family responsibility with very little access to education and, correspondingly, severely limited economic opportunities outside of small-scale trading, sex work, laboring or paid housework.

Cambodian women are:
. Often denied education - if families are forced to choose which of their children they can afford to send to school, they usually choose to send the boys. The common perception is that it is more important for the boys to learn than the girls, anecdotally because a) income inequality means that boys with an education are more likely to be able to earn a high salary than their female peers; and b) they will be the titular heads of households, and are therefore viewed as more important. 50% of women over the age of 15 are estimated to be illiterate (the figure for men is 22%; both figures from ADB Cambodia Study, 1996). 

· Bought and sold - Families will sell their daughters into prostitution in return for a lump-sum payment, or a loan which the young girl sells sex to repay. She herself often remains unpaid.

· Not encouraged to concentrate on work skills. Women are seen as being in charge of the private setting of the household, whereas the man is seen as being in charge of making money outside the house - although the reality is often greatly different.

At increasing risk of becoming HIV+, or of having to care for someone who is HIV+ or has AIDS. The HIV prevalence rate among household females in the 1999 HIV Sentinel Surveillance Survey (HSS; National Center for HIV/AIDS and STDs) is 1.2% and rising. The disease is moving via general population men and sex workers to general population women and their children. Currently, the estimated cumulative number of adults and children with AIDS is about 20,000. The 1999 estimate for new AIDS cases annually was 8,000; it is predicted that this will reach 25,000 in 2005. The burden of care for people with AIDS tends to fall on Cambodia's women.

HIV+ women in Cambodia are, therefore, multiply disadvantaged when it comes to trying to support themselves and their families, and to paying for medical treatment linked to HIV/AIDS. Medical costs are identified as the highest cause of poverty in Cambodia (Medicam, 2000).

Conclusion

• Women in Cambodia are economically disadvantaged, and HIV+ women are doubly disadvantaged because of discrimination and because of the high costs of medical care in Cambodia
• Education and training is core to assisting women in improving their situation, and the situation of their children
• Realistic employment/business opportunities need to be offered
• Training in itself isn't enough. Women who set up their own businesses following training should be offered ongoing support and advice in developing those businesses.
• HIV+ women working together in cooperatives can provide psycho-social support as well as providing a stronger base on which to build a successful business