Partnership in India

Approximately two and half million people live with HIV in India, ranking the country with the third highest level of HIV incidence worldwide. Whilst India has a relatively low HIV prevalence rate of 0.31% in the adult population overall, certain areas are significantly more affected than others. AIDS Ark currently supports projects in the two areas of India where HIV rates are greatest: Manipur, with a prevalence of 1.4% and Andhra Pradesh, with its prevalence of 0.9%.

AIDS Ark has been active in India since 2004, saving lives by supporting the excellent work of the FXB India medical team, with Dr Raju as medical director. Before the Indian government began free treatment in 2009, we provided funding for HIV medication to three FXB clinics overseen by Dr. Raju in Vizag, Andra Pradesh, Indore and Mumbai to serve 66 patients.

 

FXB, Andhra Pradesh

Before HIV medication was available in Government clinics, AIDS Ark through FXB, sustained supply of antiretrovirals and care in Andhra Pradesh for four years for sixty-six people from 2005-2010. With additional help from the Clinton Fund, AIDS Ark provided a further year of ARVs for every Indian beneficiary until they were transferred into the government programs.

AIDS Ark still provides support in Vizag for some aspects of necessary care that the government HIV treatment program does not cover. For example, opportunistic infections, though a defining characteristic of AIDS, are not treated in the government clinics. AIDS Ark provides medicines to treat these infections for up to fifty patients each year. AIDS Ark also funds fifty nutritional kits, necessary for the most desperately poor of these people to be able to adhere successfully to the medical regimen. Derek Frost, one of AIDS Ark’s founder trustees has also separately, outside of AIDS Ark, created the Elizabeth Frost Fellowship Community (EFFECT) in memoriam of his mother, providing training and micro-finance program to support income generation to bring 50 HIV+ women and their respective families out of poverty. As the situation in Vizag improves and FXB Vizag is able to secure funds from larger organisations, AIDS Ark is lowering its financial commitment to the community so that AIDS Ark can reallocate support to where it is needed more – where the larger organisations do not yet reach.

To help the region become more self-sustaining, one of AIDS Ark’s founder trustees has created a training and micro-finance program to support income generation to help 50 HIV+ women raise themselves and their families from poverty.

 

FXB, Manipur

Since 2009, AIDS Ark has been funding ARVs and medical care for HIV+ Burmese refugees at a clinic in Moreh, Manipur run by FXB India. In a region with the worst HIV rates in India, as refugees, these HIV+ people are not able to access the HAART medication usually available through the Indian government or through their own country.

AIDS Ark has funded the birth of a clinic in this remote area to treat local HIV+ refugee patients. AIDS Ark provides funding so that 56 HIV+ Burmese can receive HAART treatment via this program in Manipur. With FXB offering some additional funding, the clinic is able to treat 63 patients in total. We are hoping to expand this program through individual donations to AIDS Ark together with contributions from larger foundations.

 

Former Projects

In previous years, AIDS Ark has funded two gay HIV+ support initiatives, PLUS Kolkata and Nestam in Vizag.