The Positive Action for Children Fund announced its first grants in June 2010. It aims to support and inform the global effort to alleviate the impact of HIV and AIDS on maternal and child health by supporting interventions that engage or are led by affected communities.
The programme targets funding towards projects that deliver in one or more of these areas
- Pursuing community engagement, participation and leadership
- Using patient focused and family-centred approaches
- Achieving integration between HIV services, and between HIV and sexual and reproductive health (S&RH) services
- Generating demand for S&RH and PMTCT services
- Using an evidence-base and delivering evidence-generation
- Supporting or delivering advocacy
- Strengthening grass roots action and organisations
Our projects range across all four elements of the World Health Organization’s PMTCT strategy, as set out below. The Fund is for community programming, so encourages applications for interventions devised with and involving affected communities themselves.
Primary prevention
Sexually active people, in particular the young generation, need access to sex education, sexual health services and primary HIV prevention: projects that successfully deliver these can contribute to reducing the numbers of HIV+ parents in successive generations.
Reproductive choice for PLWHIV
People living with HIV should be able to enjoy sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing; as well as make informed choices about the timing and number of children: projects need to take a rights-based approach that can enhance mainstream services as well as targeting interventions that deliver the equitable treatment of people living with HIV.
PMTCT interventions
Mothers living with HIV need to be helped to prevent their babies becoming infected, by the use of ARV treatment and appropriate breastfeeding regimes: projects need to explore the implications of the latest guidance and research for implementation in this area.
Children and families
Infants, children and adolescents in families affected by HIV, both infected and uninfected, have a variety of needs: projects can impact on early testing and treatment, how young people cope with their status and treatment requirements, the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents and the health and welfare of children and young people whose families and opportunities have been affected by HIV.