Its difficult to describe Mau, barely five feet tall, as a "big sister." Mau in jeans, t-shirt and colorful bracelets she made herself, can easily pass of as someone in her twenties.

But she was a "big sister" (along with a couple of "big brothers of neither Orwellian nor reality TV variety) to a group of fifty young persons aged 15 to 24, at an HIV/AIDS forum in Manila June 6-8.

As part of the International Planned Parenthood Federation's (IPPF) global project, which also includes Malawi and Mozambique, the forum was the first to present the IPPF HIV AIDS Report Card on Women and Young Girls to a young audience, through the efforts of its local member association, Family Planning Organization of the Philippines.

Injecting humor in her speeches, frank and easy to approach, "big sister" Mau at the same time is a typical mother of four and happily-married. But Mau's courage is anything but typical. At sixteen, Mau discovered she was HIV positive.

In her inspirational messages to the young participants, Mau expressed how she was happy to be an "ate" (big sister in Filipino), and to give much needed advice she never had, to those who need it most.

Mau works with Babae Plus (Women Plus), a support group for HIV-positive women in the Philippines. While the number of documented cases of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines continues to be considered significantly lower that its Asian neighbors, most of the recently recorded infections have been among women.

As IPPF's in-country consultant for the project, I was asked to share the main research findings to the young participants (some of whom were respondents in the focus groups conducted the previous year).

The findings revealed, among others, continuing policy and implementation gaps, underlying conservative biases of politicians, health professionals and a growing scarcity of state-provided SRHR (sexual and reproductive health and rights) services.

On the other hand, there is also a locally enacted law (AIDS Law of 1998) which boasts of a framework (on paper) of consent, confidentiality and even directly addresses discrimination. Much more, the Philippines has also ratified all the relevant human rights treaties, as well as actively participated in adopting international consensus documents on the issue.

Most of the time however, young women and girls, including unmarried women are invisible to the system, since they are "not supposed to be having sex yet anyway."

Women in prostitution admitted to constantly receiving welcome information drives about HIV/AIDS and condom use, but pointed out that often, even if they want to use condoms, they are unable to when their clients (and more often their partners) refuse to cooperate.

On the other hand, female peer educators interviewed in the study also shared that the capacity to engage in "straight talk" about sex is still often misunderstood as a sort of open-ended sexual availability, and on occasion they have dealt with some levels of harassing behavior.

Just like other married women, some of the women in prostitution in the study also disclosed that they don't use condoms with their husbands or partners because it was a sign of their fidelity, perhaps in part also reflecting how in the Philippines, condom use is still almost exclusively associated with family planning.

In fact, the touted AIDS law reflects a warning against the mention of condoms (prophylactics) in "birth control" contexts. Advocates involved in the passage of the law in 1998 note how this provision was in part a compromise to address the Catholic Church's original opposition to the bill.

Though awkward and misplaced, the provision also reflects the uneasy relationship between SRHR advocacy and HIV/AIDS prevention in the country. For a long time, advocates from either side, went their separate ways.

The IPPF findings support earlier observations made by Human Rights Watch that the dwindling availability of basic sexual and reproductive health care has a direct bearing on the availability of HIV/AIDS prevention and services.

Much like a missing interlocking piece in a puzzle, the gap in SRHR services (as well as the conservative politics fueling this scarcity) is affecting universal access to family planning methods, which includes condoms and sexuality education.

At a time when various strategies to challenge sex and gender hierarchies, as well as the notion of fixed sex and gender identities, are undergoing critical engagement, can an advocacy tool which zeroes in on the specific situation of women and girls, stand up to the challenge?

In addressing current rhetoric and strategies about gender equality and gender justice, which often does tend to highlight and even unduly portray (all) "women and girls" as victims and (all) men as "perpetrators," the issue of HIV/AIDS itself forces us to reconsider our premises.

While in many contexts, violence against women remains a significant mode by which women are exposed to the risk of HIV/AIDS, the virus is also transmitted in everyday contexts of consensual sex, alongside lived and deeply embedded gendered relationships of power.

Women, because of their status in society, are often more vulnerable than men to HIV/AIDS, but different women are also differently situated. Mau called our attention to how women in prostitution in the Philippines are worse off even among those who are HIV-positive. Perhaps more than any other issue today, HIV/AIDS has highlighted how the characteristically overlapping situations of gender, sex, age, class, race and marital status all figure into the vulnerability of populations to HIV.

A trainer, working with HIV-positive women and interviewed in the study, shared how women who got infected by their husbands don't get as much of the stigma and blame as women who got it in the line of sex work.

In making the grade, the Report Card can lead to new ways of looking at and dealing with HIV/AIDS prevention, but its effectiveness as a tool depends on our recognition that "Sexual rights" is an inclusive frame, with different sectors often having to engage it from their particular situations in daily political practice.

A Perfect Match: The high-spirited youth and the positive influence of advocates: artists (from theater, music and painting) and awe inspiring courage of PLWH, Ate Mau (Big sister, Mau) proved the ideal environment to engage the Report Card findings and recommendations.