Bill and Melinda Gates put their money where it's needed

Oct 25 2006

Bill Gates is once again putting his money into helping improve lives in developing countries.

Staying true to their belief that every life has equal value and continuing their efforts to help make that so, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have promised to invest $23 million to deal with HIV/AIDS in India.

The $23 million is part of an additional $58 million committed to Avahan, the Gates Foundation’s India AIDS Initiative, a five year, $258 million HIV prevention program.

This initial amount has been made available because of the limited stocks of antiretroviral drugs and shortage of trained personnel to screen people.

In a three year plan the $23 million will focus on two main areas, program management and technical capacity at both national and state levels, in order to enhance the capacity of the government of India’s HIV prevention response.

Dr. Tadataka Yamada, President of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program who is in India to meet with government leaders and health experts, and to visit Avahan-supported HIV prevention projects, made the announcement.

Avahan will use the money to provide support for training of NACO and State AIDS Control Societies (SACS) staff, to enhance their skills in project and financial management.

Avahan will also provide the support for interventions with key populations and the funds will be deployed between 2007-2009 by India’s National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) and Avahan in a joint implementation strategy.

Avahan was launched in 2003, by the Gates and funds community-driven HIV prevention services to those most vulnerable, including HIV-commercial sex workers and their clients, men who have sex with men, and injecting drug users.

The program focuses on India’s six high prevalence states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Manipur and Nagaland, where 70 percent of India’s HIV cases live, and along 8000 kms of India’s national highways.

At present Avahan operates in 76 districts across 535 towns, providing services to over 270,000 key population members and over 6,000,000 male clients.