The difficulties which women extension agents often encounter at the village level are -

Effects on extension workers as individuals

Extension staff apart from being more exposed to the risk of contracting the HIV infection due to their frequent visits to HIV/AIDS infected rural areas, are themselves suffering from the pandemic in many ways. Many of them are sick, some chronically. A number of their colleagues have already become victim to the disease, and more bad news is feared almost every day. The talk of colleagues’ demise is common in office meetings more than ever before. Then, they have the unbearable burden, in terms of time, money and energy, of taking care of their close sick relatives and visiting sick neighbours. Some of them have lost their spouses, thus leaving them not only grieved but also with the responsibility of taking care of minor children. The situation has forced some workers to pull their children out of school.

Reductions and disruptions in staff

Discussions with government extension service officials reveal that their capacity for delivering satisfactory services is being affected by HIV/AIDS. This is due to disruptions in their programmes caused by deaths, protracted sickness and frequent absences of staff. For example, in Uganda, between 20 and 50 percent of all working time of extension staff is lost due to the attendance of funerals of AIDS victims and for the caring of sick relatives.

Increased organizational costs

Both public and private extension organizations and some relevant institutions have reported increased costs due to HIV/AIDS. The additional expenditure is related to payments for treatment of sick staff