HIV/AIDS Prevention, Control, Care and Support among slum dwellers, street children, sex workers and MSMs.
HIV/AIDS Prevention, Control, Care and Support among slum dwellers, street children, sex workers and MSMs.
Creating an enabling atmosphere to scale up prevention and care services Works on prevention and control of HIV/AIDS among truck drivers, commercial sex workers, slum youth, slum women, street children, MSMs and Migrant Labourers.
Identifying the high risk groups (HRG)
Increasing the access to health service including STI and HIV testing.
Increasing the health seeking behavior and safe sex behavior.
Provide diagnostic services and refer PLHA for clinical service Medical care and Nutritional support is given to positives. Personal care and Counseling to their families. SIDUR identified HIV/AIDS as a potential threat in 1994 and started taking up programmes to counter that.
Our initial effort was preventive education through behavioral change communication (BCC. While doing this programme in the slums of Hyderabad ,we took up this programme among Truckers in Truckers halt points in Hyderabad.
We network with Institutions who give support to the affected children. We also support with the programmes of HIV/AIDS positives' network. We have mobile clinic which has facilities for rapid testing of HIV/AIDS. We also take up for all the livelihoods, income generation activities for commercial sex workers are priorities. These priorities give training strength for HIV/AIDS. We have developed our own IEC material for education to adolescents women in scheduled castes and persons from Dalit Communities.
Healthy Huts / Information / Training / Meeting Place – Community Office, Care and Support Centres for Positives and STD Clinics are also part of our work.
Nutrition and Medical Support and legal support to 400 HIV/AIDS patients and 40 children is our average strength of programme.
Support through networking programme.
Network with all the institutions which provide VCTC facility, clinical support, CD4 count, ARV drugs facility.
HIV/AIDS programmes are different thematic area programmes:
a) Slum population
b) Sex Workers
c) Street Children / Adult
d) MSMs
e) Truck Drivers
f) High risk behavioral general population.
We cover 5 components in our work-
a) BCC
b) Condom Promotion
c) STD identification and treatment
d) Counselling
e) VCTC testing
f) Referrals
g) Care and Support.
Target area
Slums - 120 covering 9 lakh population
Truckers - NH9, NH5, all halt points.
Sex Workers - 17 hot spots in twin cities - Street based, home based and call girls.
MSMs - 17 hot spots – [Kothis (M), Panthis (W) belonging to MSMs]
Street Children - Adults and teens from age groups 10 to 18 in 21 points.
Strength - 200 Peer Educators.
Steps taken in other related activities:
- Enabling Environment
- Formation of health committees for decision making
- Development of PEs (168 Nos) to work on project strategies
- Strengthening of volunteers from the community to support the programme activities
- Project staff at Grass root level from the community itself.
Advocacy:
- Advocacy taken at various level to address the concerns of the community
- Harassment of sex workers by local goondas and police
- Govt. Health institutions support for stake holders
- Local municipalities to take up basic infrastructure and sanitary work
- Many petty local issues with leader and local goondas
- Parking yard allotment for lorry parking
Sustainability of the project:
- Strengthening of peer groups and slowly take up the responsibility of project activities
- Formation of CBO at different levels / Strengthening of the referral system
- Link up of services available through community / Different stakeholders role in implementation and sharing of responsibility.
