Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 25 (IANS) The Global Fund will give a $47-million grant to NGOs based in South Asia to launch a community based programme for gays to reduce the spread of HIV among them.
The first-ever regional grant, which has been approved in principle, will focus on gays and transgenders in seven south Asian countries, said a statement issued here by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which is an international financing institution that invests money to save lives against the three diseases.

The NGOs — Naz Foundation International (NFI), PSI (Population Services International), the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) regional centre in Colombo and the South Asian MSM and AIDS Network (SAMAN), a coalition of various community based organisations in some of the Asian countries - had approached the Global Fund on this matter.

The five-year project will include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

“This marks the first time, the Global Fund will support a major regional project in Asia specifically addressing men who have sex with men (MSM), transgenders and HIV,” said the statement.

Shivananda Khan, NFI’s founder and chief executive, said: “This is indeed a milestone for both the Global Fund, and those of us who work on these issues.”

He said that he along with the other partners are “grateful” that the Global Fund “recognised the urgency in combating the spread of HIV in these long marginalised and still ‘invisible’ populations”.

“The grant provides South Asia with a promising platform which must continue to be strengthened by all concerned - governments, international development partners and community partners alike,” he added.

Jeffrey O’Malley, global director of the UNDP’s HIV Group, said millions of gays and transgender people in South Asia suffer from discrimination in many aspects of their day to day lives.

“This makes them more vulnerable to HIV and undermines their capacity to contribute fully to their communities and societies,” he said.

PSI’s country representative in Nepal Andrew Boner said: “Regional HIV prevalence rates are difficult to estimate. But the most recent data for South Asia suggests that between six percent and 10 percent of men have had sex with other men, and up to 90 percent of men who had sex with other men in the last year are at great risk of HIV infection and transmission.”

“If urgent interventions are not implemented soon, the window of opportunity to address this crisis effectively will narrow very quickly,” he added.