HIV and AIDS
Anusuya, 31, HIV positive and member of partner organisation, MILANA, Bangalore
Photo: Srikanth Kolari/ActionAid
AIDS causes the deaths of approximately 8,200 people every single day, the majority of them in poor countries
Every death is a tragedy, but AIDS particularly hits young adults – leaving families and communities destitute, as well as bereaved.
Effective anti-retroviral treatments means that a diagnosis as HIV positive is no longer the automatic life sentence it once was. But the drugs are expensive. 10m people lving with HIV and AIDS do not have access to the treatment they need.
HIV and AIDS are most likely to affect those who already experience discrimination and disadvantage, including women, sex workers, injecting drug users (IDUs) and sexuality minorities (Gay,Bisexual/Transgender). And people living with HIV and AIDS experience new forms of discrimination, such as travel restrictions, or social isolation.
ActionAid and HIV and AIDS
ActionAid has been working on HIV/AIDS since 1987, giving practical support to people living with the disease in 23 countries, as well as campaigning and lobbying rich governments and international institutions to make access to drugs, care and treatment fair and unbiased.
In our HIV and AIDS work we:
- Support and build organisations of people living with HIV, and groups most at risk.
- Call for the decriminalisation of HIV transmission
- Work against violence against women
- Promote quality health care
- Call for universal access to anti-retroviral treatments
ActionAid's STAR (Societies Tackling AIDS through Rights) is a methodology for mobilising communities to respond to the challenges of HIV and AIDS.
STAR is helping communities across countries to sensitise and address issues around gender inequalities and human rights of most marginalised communities and its linkages with HIV and AIDS, besides educating them on HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support services and programmes.
