Prayas

Prayas, meaning ‘endeavour’ in Hindi, is a two year (2016-2018) programme designed with the objectives of raising awareness and increasing access to Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for transgender and hijra communities  as a service within combination prevention. The programme is being implemented in close co-ordination with our Samarth programme and aims to serve 6000 transgender and hijras across six states, viz., Delhi, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Telangana and West Bengal.

The programme emphasises on building the capacities of community organisations to advocate for PrEP as part of the service delivery package of HIV prevention programme of the government of India. The other important aspect of the programme is to influence the government to develop and formulate policies to adopt WHO recommendation of PrEP in context of Test and Treat to reach the goal of 90-90-90.

The “PrEP Champions” will mobilise and education the communities through community sabhas, one-on-one meetings and providing education at the health camps organized by the Samarth team. 120 health providers will also be trained in PrEP administration and monitoring protocols. Through advocacy meetings, briefing papers and dialogue between community and policy makers, efforts will be made to include PrEP in package of service for prevention of HIV.
The project is being supported by ViiV Healthcare Positive Program Action.