Avahan, the India AIDS Initiative of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will enter the second phase of its programme in India next year to involve more corporates and government bodies to take the cause forward.
According to Jayanti Rajagopalan, program officer of Avahan, "Our current initiative on HIV ends next year. We are talking to several companies and government bodies to take the cause forward. Our initiative mainly targetted sex workers and long-distance truckers on HIV and AIDS awareness."
The Foundation had set aside a fund of $250 million for five years the tenure for which would be completed in March 2009. The Foundation RECENTLY launched ‘AIDS Sutra - Untold stories from India’, at the Oxford Bookstore in Kolkata.
Published by Random House, the book is a collection of 16 stories from some of India's most well-known writers, telling the human stories behind the epidemic.
The book is priced at Rs 395. For each book purchased, Rs 80 will go to support children affected by HIV/AIDS in high prevalence cities like Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The funding will help them to go to school and receive care and support. The fund will be managed by Avahan.