Publications related to Sexual & Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS integration

[Guest guest]

With funding support from the DFID Challenge Fund, the India HIV/AIDS

Alliance (Alliance India) has completed an intensive 13 month project to address

the increasing feminisation of HIV/AIDS in India, with a

specific focus on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and HIV/AIDS

integration. Alliance India partnership comprising 19 partner NGOs

worked in 17 districts across 6 Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra

Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Orissa and Delhi.

The project was aimed at strengthening and developing community-centred

approaches to meet the SRH and HIV/AIDS-related needs of women in low-income

settings. In keeping with the mandate of the Alliance, this project was based on

an understanding that community sensitisation, mobilisation and empowerment

efforts would contribute to ensuring women's needs and rights are accorded

greater prominence and importance in designing and implementing HIV/AIDS and SRH

activities. The project further sought to focus on creating increased informed

demand and enhancing awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and SRH with special

emphasis on increasing access to health, social and legal support services for

women affected by HIV/AIDS or vulnerable to HIV.

This project has also been extremely successful in creating a wealth of

knowledge that can be readily used by a range of stakeholders -

policy-makers, donors, civil society organisations including networks

and NGOs, media and academia. Recently published resources include:

Foretelling the Crisis: HIV/AIDS, Sexual and Reproductive Health & Women in

India

Based on the baseline Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) survey

undertaken by Alliance India in 2006 in 5 States, this report is a

comprehensive analysis of the survey results from a sample of 2,284

women and 987 male partners interviewed on the situation of women in

relation to their knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to their

sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS in order to better

understand their vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. It recommends specific

actions to help alleviate the negative impact of HIV and AIDS on women,their

partners and their families in India.

http://www.aidsallianceindia.net/Main/ViewPublication.aspx?id=422

Common Cause, Collective Strength: Findings of an evaluation of support groups

of women and children living with and/or affected by HIV/AIDS in three Indian

States

Key to the Alliance's approach of ensuring the most effective response

to HIV and AIDS is its commitment to ensuring communities are at the

centre of any response with activities emphasising a community-driven

and led focus. A key activity for Alliance India has been the formation and

capacity building of community support groups, a key activity with the

Alliance's care and support programme. This has proved to be an effective

mechanism for providing psychosocial and emotional support amongst members who

are affected by and/or living with HIV/AIDS.

With support from the Abbot Fund and DFID, this report is an assessment of the

impact of support groups of women and children in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and

Delhi States and was carried out by means of a participatory evaluation. It

provides some interesting insights into the working, dynamics and usefulness of

such support groups and was seen by community participants as a two-way learning

process, not merely an extractive tool for data collection.

http://www.aidsallianceindia.net/Main/ViewPublication.aspx?id=423

Stories of Significance: Redefining Change

Using the participatory evaluation technique, Most Significant Change

(MSC), this report derives its findings from the MSC evaluation of work from

Alliance India's recently concluded DFID-supported project

addressing the feminisation of HIV/AIDS in India. The MSC technique is a

participatory monitoring tool based on gathering and analysing stories of

important or significant changes from a cross-section of

beneficiaries, to provide a richer picture of the impact of project

interventions. This document is written in a lucid manner and contains

many new insights for the purposes of learning for future programming in

relation to SRH and HIV/AIDS integration and HIV/AIDS programming for women.

http://www.aidsallianceindia.net/Main/ViewPublication.aspx?id=435

Theatre Campaign: Raising Community Awareness on Sexual and Reproductive Health

& HIV/AIDS

Based on its theatre campaign to build mass awareness on SRH and

HIV/AIDS in Amritsar (Punjab) and Bhubaneswar (Orissa), Alliance India

has produced a documentary film. The film has been put together to

showcase how theatre can be used to connect with communities that do not have

easy access to such information. Issues around women's

vulnerability and ways to communicate information on SRH, HIV/AIDS and

related services were discussed in the shows. Community participation

and sustainability of the theatre medium were ensured by training local people

to perform as part of the theatre groups while NGO staff was trained on the use

of theatre techniques. A post-campaign survey was conducted to understand the

outreach and measure change in terms of awareness level. The film covers all

these aspects in a manner and forms that it should be useful as a resource for

civil society organisations and community-based organisations working on or

interested in pursuing SRH and HIV/AIDS integration.

http://www.aidsallianceindia.net/Main/GalleryVideo_theatre.aspx

In addition to these resources, Alliance India has also produced a

poster on sexual and reproductive health rights

http://www.aidsallianceindia.net/Main/ViewPublication.aspx?id=421

and 2 flipbooks for outreach workers and other health educators to

enable discussions about reproductive and sexual health and HIV in

women's group, support group and self-help group settings: one focusing on

sexual and reproductive health & HIV/AIDS

http://www.aidsallianceindia.net/Main/ViewPublication.aspx?id=80

and the other on sexual and reproductive health needs of women living with HIV

http://www.aidsallianceindia.net/Main/ViewPublication.aspx?id=419

The flip books are available in 6 languages (English, Hindi, Tamil,

Telugu, Punjabi, and Manipuri) and are useful for other civil society

organisations undertaking community-based work with women.

These and other resources can be downloaded or obtained from the newly

launched Alliance India virtual resource centre, SETU

www.aidsallianceindia.net <http://www.aidsallianceindia.net/

______________________________________

Supporting Community Action on AIDS in India

Priya Mohanty

Programme Officer

India HIV/AIDS Alliance

Kushal House, Third Floor,

39 Nehru Place, New Delhi 110 019. India

Switchboard: +91-11-4163 3081 Ext. 121

Fax: +91-11-4163 3085

Email: pmohanty@...

Websites: www.aidsalliance.org