•   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   Know More about P.D. Agarwal's initiative for combating blood crisis BPWT has been actively involved in giving relief to the Bihar Flood victims Visit our e-library section to download manuals. Complete medical support and care for various dieseases. We undertake trainings on various projects. Click here for details. We value your suggestions.
	Findings - Srikakulam district Sex worker: " My regular partner abuses me and beats me up if I ask him to use condoms. He says, you sleep with other men and ask me to use condoms." Truckers' spouse: " We cannot even analyze what and when beating is justifiable ... because we are beaten for everything and nothing." Truck helper: " All the villagers treat the positives as untouchables and they are not even allowed to access the drinking water sources." HIV / AIDS Stigma & Violence BHORUKA and The International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) are collaborating on an action research study examining the dynamics between stigma and intimate partner violence among mobile and mobility - affected populations in and around Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh, India. The key target populations are sex workers, truckers' helpers and truckers' spouses. This Stigma and Violence Reduction Intervention (SVRI) Project intends to achieve behavioral and attitudinal changes related to stigma and violence as well as adoption of safe sex practices, particularly condom use. Specifically it proposes to: • Increase condom use • Decrease stigmatizing attitude towards HIV positives • Reduce tolerance of intimate partner violance. Accomplishments •  Overall mobilization of the community and stakeholders to fight against HIV / AIDS stigma and intimate partner violence. • Overwhelming participation of the key target populations i.e. female sex workers, truckers' spouses and truck helpers. • More than 150 participated in the transformatory workshops, wherein the problems and solutions were discussed. • PLHAs are living in the villages without being discriminated. • Village level development committees were reactivated in the communities to work on village development issues like health, sanitation etc. with NGOs and the government. • Availablity and accessability of condoms were increased through placing condom boxes in panchayat offices and local shops. • The program has been successful in establishing linkages between different service providers. • Mobilize media attention on issues related to HIV / AIDS and associated stigma. 5 Key themes emerged: •  Intimate partner violence is widespread among key populations surveyed. • Intimate partner violence is widely accepted and rooted in traditional gender norms. • Fear and lack of in-depth and accurate HIV knowledge fuel stigma among key populations. • Reported condom use among sex workers and truck helpers is high but inconsistent. • Larger community awareness and participation is key in reducing stigma and violence as suggested by key populations. Key steps to achieve the goals : •  Mapping of local health care providers and building support. • Formative research on understanding health care providers level of knowledge on HIV / AIDS, related stigma and discrimination and the level of acceptability of gender based violence as a public health issue. • Development of modules for training health care providers. • Training of health care providers. • Post training assessment. • Toolkit finalization. • National level dissemination of the program and release of the toolkit.
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