After Gates exit, state searches for funds

The exit of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from the Andhra Pradesh State Aids Control Society brings to an end the highfunding to over 80 non-government organisations in the state which indulged heavily in creating awareness via advertisements, hoardings and also organising functions to draw attention towards the deadly Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

The contract, which ended on March 31st, supported 80 non-government organisations in Andhra Pradesh with an annual outlay of `25 lakh per organisation. These amounts were utilised for human resources of the organisations and also towards creating awareness on the deadly disease.

Vijay Nair, programme manager of Pehchan Project, says, “The activities helped create a lot of attention and highlighted the cause of the disease. This encouraged a lot of people to come out in the open and declare their sexual preference, accept the disease and also talk about it. There was continuous activity which helped keep people’s focus on the disease and also created a strong urge to prevent it.”

While the focus now is firmly on the issue, attention is being paid to increasing awareness among those in the sex trade that is rampant in the state. Sex workers, particularly young women who are new to the trade, are the focus of the programmes as they are the most vul- nerable when it comes to contracting HIV with little to no knowledge of safety methods.

“The new sex workers in the profession learn of safety measures only after they have had several encounters with clients. These are the risk factors which were being constantly addressed,” explained counsellor Roshan with Alliance.

The prevalence rate in the state shows that there are 4,19,180 people living with HIV of which over 1 lakh people are receiving antiretro viral therapy.

The NGOs played an important role in counseling, use of condoms and safe sex methods to ensure that the prevalence comes down. Most of these NGOs are now a part of the government set-up. Ten per cent of the NGOs were accommodated by the government in 2008, twenty per cent in 2010 and 70 per cent in 2012.

The government pays the NGOs `15 lakhs per annum, said joint director of APSACS T. Kailash Ditya.