Avahan () was an initiative sponsored by the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the third largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $ ...

to reduce the spread of

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It began in 2003 and by 2013, the control of the programme transitioned to the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

in phases. As of 2009 the Gates Foundation had pledged to the programme, whose aim was to reduce HIV transmission and the prevalence of STIs in vulnerable high-risk populations, notably female sex workers, MSM, and injecting drug users (IDU), through prevention education and services such as condom promotion, STI management, behaviour change communication, community mobilisation, and advocacy. Avahan worked in six high-prevalence states. All the states in India who had a HIV prevalence of more than 1 per cent in the year 2002, were considered as HIV high-prevalent states. All the states had a lead partner and other NGOs and CBOs at the district-level who implemented the prevention programme. India HIV/AIDS Alliance was the state lead partner in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

, Karnataka Health Promotion Trust in

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

, Path Finder in

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

, Tamil Nadu AIDS Initiative and Voluntary Health Services (VHS) in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. The other two states are

Nagaland Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Sel ...

and

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

in the North-East of India had Emmanuel Hospital Association and Australian International Health Institute as lead partner

Apart from the State Lead Partners, Avahan had cross-cutting partners for advocacy in Centre for Advocacy and Research, for Police Advocacy in Constella Futures, care and support in

Care International CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, formerly Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) is a major international humanitarian agency delivering emergency relief and long-term international development projects. Founded i ...

. After Avahan, BMGF shifted its focus on TB, maternal and child health and other areas like polio.

Founding

The

launched Avahan in 2003 for the purpose of developing a model HIV prevention system in India and promoting others in India and worldwide to adopt their model.

Strategy

Rather than staffing HIV prevention workers on its own, Avahan provides government health organisations and

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

s with the tools they need to conduct HIV prevention on their own. Avahan's primary prevention techniques included the following: * training social workers to do

peer education Peer education is an approach to health promotion, in which community members are supported to promote health-enhancing change among their peers. Peer education is the teaching or sharing of health information, values and behavior in educating oth ...

* funding

sexually transmitted infection A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is Transmission (medicine), spread by Human sexual activity, sexual activity, e ...

(STI) testing and treatment * distributing condoms * forcing communities who receive any aid to take total responsibility for the management of that aid * funding social media to reduce stigma associated with STIs * fostering access to HIV care and treatment

Impact

In October 2011 a study published in

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal, founded in England in 1823. It is one of the world's highest-impact academic journals and also one of the oldest medical journals still in publication. The journal publishes ...

, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, concluded that between 2003-2008 in areas where the Avahan project was active, the programme reduced community rates of HIV transmission by 50 per cent. Avahan may have prevented 6,00,000 new HIV infections in India in the states served by it.

References

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External links

Avahan
2003 establishments in India Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation HIV/AIDS organizations in India Organizations established in 2003