27 Jan 2012 Pakistan: Religious Leadership for HIV Prevention in Pakistan

AIDS Awareness Society, Pakistan
€ 9,900
Ref. 1841

In Pakistan HIV is said to be a concentrated epidemic, but there exists a window of opportunity to check its spread. Religious leaders can play an important role in this regard. However many religious leaders lack the necessary skills to address HIV in the Pakistani context. The project adopts a gender-aware inter-faith and ecumenical approach that involves female and male Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh religious leaders. It centers on the issue of stigma and discrimination, and gaps in knowledge about HIV and AIDS in Pakistan. The direct beneficiaries include 64 religious leaders and 36 faculties in religious leaders training institutes. They will gain capacity on strategies to create awareness about HIV and to undertake advocacy for the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS. Their mandate will be to transfer the new knowledge at the community level to reach almost 50,000 people in their respective communities by the end of the project. The project is an initiative of AIDS Awareness Society (AAS), a local civil society organisation established in 1993. AAS works with HIV+ persons, female and male sex workers, transgender persons, street youth and religious leaders, among others, to increase knowledge about HIV and AIDS and to advocate for the rights of most at risk populations and HIV+ persons.

Contact: Mr. Hector Nihal
President
Email: Aaspak.org@gmail.com
Web: www.aaspak.org