Were you delivering services to young people before the COVID-19 crisis?
We believe in youth mobilization, participation, and advocacy for strategically and collaboratively ensuring the health, well-being, and human rights of young people. Since 2016, we have been working on HIV/AIDS prevention and control, HIV/AIDS impact mitigation, promotion of sexual and reproductive health, and substance-abuse awareness and prevention.
To combat the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, we conduct a series of half-day sensitization workshops called “Let’s End HIV Stigma” in collaboration with the Department of Education and Goa State AIDS Control Society, for teachers and heads of educational institutions. In addition to the workshops, we organize films viewing events that discuss stigma and discrimination. Furthermore, we operate a nutrition bank to provide supplementary nutrition, a drop-in wellness center with a full-time clinical psychologist to assess and counsel (using the WHO QOL-HIV instrument[1]), and an aftercare program for rehabilitation and social reintegration. We organize youth camps to build confidence and help adolescents to emerge as leaders for change. We provide information and education on STI prevention and facilitate access for children and adolescents in need of antiretroviral therapy (ART).
What new approaches did you use to respond to the barriers created by the COVID-19 pandemic to reach young people?
In Goa, about 300 children and adolescents are living with HIV– people living with HIV/AIDS or PLWHA– and are on antiretroviral therapy. Since the first lockdown on 21st March 2020, we have been providing online psychosocial support, telecounseling, and ARTs delivery to people’s doorsteps by our volunteers. Health officials at our HIV clinics made sure to have the beneficiaries’ consent and then provided a list of people who needed deliveries of ARTs. Beneficiaries are also given the option to directly connect with us for a supply of ARTs. Additionally, we provided basic food grains, groceries, antiseptic soaps, and masks to more than 100 of these children and adolescents and their families.
Why did you decide to use these approaches?
We believe that access to quality sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services is a fundamental human right and a critical development issue. Our HIV-SRHR integrated programs are aimed at addressing underlying and systemic factors, including gender inequality, policy barriers, and power imbalances that have an impact on health.
Many of our service-seekers are low-income and rely on free state-run transport to reach their therapy centers. During the lockdown, their access to services was adversely affected. We have always provided care and support to children and adolescents and in view of the restrictions of lockdown have had to come up with this strategy.
How are you working to find out if these approaches are having the desired impact?
We keep track of all our listed beneficiaries and whether they have received the requisite supplies. Based on the observations of our field staff, we provide services either at home or at therapy centers to these adolescents. Though data pertaining to adolescents receiving the services is not made available to the public domain, we have been successful in reaching a number of PLWHAs, including foreign individuals who were stranded in the state due to the lockdown.
