Supporting the community response to AIDS by taking Positive Action
HIV and AIDS are social issues as well as medical challenges. Knowing that HIV is transmitted by sexual intercourse, sharing needles and from mother to baby is not enough in itself to guarantee the changes in behaviour that can protect people from infection. Nor does the growing availability of ARV drugs around the world mean that everyone who needs treatment will come forward, that they can afford blood tests or good nutrition, or that they understand these drugs must be taken at the right time every day of their lives to avoid dangerous drug resistance.
The leadership and involvement of community-based organisations remain critical to successful HIV prevention, care and treatment. They engage affected and vulnerable people, provide essential services, and tackle stigma and discrimination that inevitably accompany so many aspects of this epidemic.
ViiV Healthcare is transparent about all of its charitable giving – for details see the Corporate ethics section of this web site. ViiV Healthcare will further increase transparency by publishing details of any individual charitable grants.
TREATAsia Positive Action supports treatment literacy in Cambodia, China, Thailand and Vietnam
Established in 1992, the heritage Positive Action programme is the focus of ViiV Healthcare’s support for vulnerable communities around the world. We typically work with NGO and CBO partners to deliver sustainable projects at a grass-roots level in communities facing the most acute challenges of HIV and AIDS.
Positive Action uses its funds to support community-focused projects that reach those most affected by HIV, particularly in marginalised and vulnerable populations. These include youth, girls and women, sex workers, gay men, men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender people, injecting drug users (IDU), the homeless and the incarcerated. With projects in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, Positive Action is a global programme.
The first grants from ViiV Healthcare’s Positive Action for Children Fund were awarded in June 2010. The Fund encourages community responses that follow the World Health Organization’s strategy for the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. The Fund is now an integral part of ViiV Healthcare's commitment to communities affected by HIV and AIDS and the company will invest £50 million in the Fund over ten years.
Visit our Positive Action for Children Fund pages for more information on last year’s grant recipients and the next call for proposals.
The Positive Action Community Grants are given by our local operating companies to in-country HIV community organisations. Our philosophy is to target support to selected programmes that are innovative, sustainable and that produce tangible results for communities affected by HIV. In-country personnel are involved in the governance to ensure that programmes supported by ViiV Healthcare focus exclusively on community needs.
Visit our Positive Action Community Grants page for more details about funding from local ViiV Healthcare operating companies.
Prevention materials produced as part of the Positive Action at Work programme
The workplace has long been recognised as an important environment for HIV and AIDS education. This education can help to address issues of stigma and discrimination as well as HIV prevention.
Visit Positive Action at Work to find all the tools and materials that have been developed with employees and peer educators in different parts of the world and are now available to you, rights free. Action plans, leaflets, posters, work cards and peer education materials can all be downloaded.