In December 2006, the M·A·C AIDS Fund announced an initiative addressing HIV-prevention and awarded $2.4 million to 11 organizations. Participating Organizations Aboriginal Peoples Carrier Sekani Family Services Prince George, British Columbia, $203,000 Aboriginal peoples of Canada represented 23.4% of all new reported HIV infections in 2003, yet aboriginals represent only a little over 3% of the entire Canadian population. Before 1993, 1.2% of reported AIDS cases were among Aboriginal peoples. This statistic increased to 13.4% in 2003. Carrier Sekani Family Services (CSFS), a branch society of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council incorporated as a nonprofit society in 1990, provides health, child and family, and legal services to its twelve member Carrier and Sekani First Nations residing in North-Central British Columbia. Aboriginal peoples are overrepresented in the HIV epidemic in Canada, and one of the greatest factors for this is intravenous drug use. The grant will support CSFS’s Northern Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Task Force in two areas: a mobile van unit and a series of education sessions. The wellness van will provide harm reduction services such as a needle exchange and other basic health care services. They will also conduct five 3-day regional education sessions that will incorporate HIV education and awareness modules. The two arms of the project aim to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in this vulnerable community through education and health services. Women in the Caribbean and Central America New York, NY – $200,000 It is estimated that 1.8 million people are living with HIV in Latin America. In 1999, women constituted 25% and 30% of HIV-positive adults in Latin America and the Caribbean, respectively. Today, that number has increased to 30% and 50%. AIDS is the leading cause of death for Honduran women. Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC) was founded by Margaret Sanger, who opened a store in 1916 to provide women with contraception and who believed that all individuals should have the right to decide when and whether to bear a child and to the health services needed to avoid unwanted pregnancy and disease. Since 1973, PPNYC has also conducted global programs under the auspices of its international arm, Margaret Sanger Center International (MSCI). Through this grant, MSCI will work to empower women, reduce gender-based violence (GBV), and halt the spread of HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean and Central America by strengthening the capacity of eight grassroots partner organizations that help clinical service providers address GBV, increasing awareness among stakeholders of the need to reduce GBV and promote gender equity as part of HIV prevention, and launching a Center for Excellence in the Dominican Republic and developing a new collaborative project in Honduras. Youth in State Foster Care and Detention Systems Center for HIV Law and Policy New York, NY – $75,000 The CDC reported that in 2004, an estimated 4,883 young people ages 13 to 24 were diagnosed with HIV, while an estimated 7,761 young people were living with AIDS, a 42% increase since 2000. The CDC also reported that since young people start engaging in sexual intercourse at early ages (47% of high school students have had sexual intercourse, 7.4% of youth reported first sexual intercourse before age 13), “HIV/AIDS education needs to take place at correspondingly young ages, before young people engage in sexual behaviors that put them at risk for HIV infection.” The Center for HIV Law and Policy (CHLP) was launched in 2005 to reduce the impact of HIV discrimination of vulnerable, marginalized communities by expanding effective legal and policy advocacy on their behalf, improving their access to needed legal services, and growing the advocacy power of attorneys and community members alike. CHLP’s Teen SENSE will address the need for HIV/AIDS education and prevention among youth in New Jersey who are in the foster care system or juvenile facilities—a population that does not have access to open discussion on sexual behavior in the family or school environment. Teen SENSE will expand its national online resource bank; bring together medical, social science, and legal professionals to establish LGBT and heterosexual adolescents’ right to sound sexual health programming that addresses HIV prevention; and develop strategies for policy intervention on behalf of these adolescents in state custody. People Over 50 ACRIA New York, NY – $150,000 In New York City, 31% of the 100,000 people living with HIV are over age 50 and 70% are over 40. A “Research on Older Adults with HIV” study indicated that 61% of seniors living with HIV/AIDS were infected within the last five years – nearly double the figure from 10 years ago. Heterosexual sex is the fastest growing mode of transmission among this group. Once infected, HIV positive seniors are faced with the dual task of managing their HIV while simultaneously coping with the common ailments of aging (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, etc.). They are also less likely than their younger counterparts to disclose their HIV-positive status to family and friends. ACRIA is a 15-year-old nonprofit, community-based AIDS research and treatment education center serving the New York metropolitan area. The HIV Health Literacy Program of ACRIA will partner with the Council of Senior Centers and Services (CSCS), to launch a program, Senior Education and Empowerment (SEE), that will ease access to services and support and bring accurate and up-to-date HIV education and prevention information to senior center clients. Commercial Sex Workers in India International Center for Research on Women Washington, DC, $350,000 India surpassed South Africa as the country with the most HIV/AIDS cases in the world, with an estimated 5.7 million people living with HIV. 1.9 million women, ages 15-49, in India are living with HIV/AIDS. In India, sexual transmission is responsible for 84% of reported AIDS cases. The HIV prevalence rate in India is 0.88% overall, but among female sex workers, the rate is much higher: 8.88%. Much study and effort has been devoted to decreasing prevalence rates in the red light districts of Kolkata and Mumbai, but little attention has been directed at the problem in northern parts of the country. The northern-Indian state of Uttar Pradesh ranks among the lowest on socioeconomic indicators, a factor that can fuel poor women’s entry into sex work. In addition, the low status of women, which manifests as limited control over resources, restricted mobility, and susceptibility to violence, weakens the ability of female sex workers to protect themselves and to negotiate safer sex. Since its founding in 1976, ICRW has worked with partner organizations and governments throughout the world to promote gender equitable development, reduce poverty, and change the lives of millions of women and girls. ICRW, together with CARE India, will launch a three-year participatory action research project that uses a community empowerment framework and harm reduction principals to reduce and prevent the vulnerability of sex workers to HIV infection, stigma, and violence in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Canadian Youth Ottawa, Ontario – $133,000 An estimated 60,000 people in Canada are living with HIV, and between 2,800 and 5,200 new HIV infections occur each year. A recent study found that two-thirds of Canadian grade 7 students and one-half of grade 9 students believe that there is a cure for HIV/AIDS, and that Canadian youth in 1989 were generally more knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS transmission and protection than today’s youth. The Canadian AIDS Society (CAS), a coalition of more than 125 community-based HIV/AIDS organizations across Canada, is the national voice of the community-based AIDS movement and is dedicated to monitoring, improving and enriching the response to HIV/AIDS at all levels of society. Youth in Canada are increasingly at risk of HIV infection. CAS will conduct an 18-month project to develop an HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum targeted at school-aged children (grades 1-12) and youth across Canada. Not only will youth be involved in assessing the current state of HIV/AIDS education, they will also be involved in the development of the prevention response. Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) Care Resource Miami, FL – $100,000 Despite significant strides in HIV prevention, men who have sex with men (MSMs), particularly men of color, are the group at highest risk for HIV infection. Black and Hispanic MSMs are often reluctant, as a result of cultural pressures, to self-identify as gay or bisexual, which is a major barrier to seeking and obtaining HIV testing and care. These men also frequently face a constellation of other challenges such as poverty, the double stigma of race/ethnicity and homosexuality, language differences and immigration issues. Taken as a whole, these issues make practicing HIV prevention far more difficult. Miami has the second highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the nation and is the home of many MSM of color. One in 46 Black/African Americans in Florida are infected with HIV. Care Resource was founded in 1998, through the merger of Health Crisis Network and Community Research Initiative, and is a multi-cultural, community-based AIDS service organization that provides prevention, education, care and treatment, research and support services. Care Resource’s Youth Health Intervention Project (YHIP) was created to reduce new HIV infections among young Black/African American and Hispanic men who have sex with men (MSM) and to increase enrollment of HIV positive and high-risk negative MSM of color in appropriate medical care and treatment programs. Through the YHIP project, Care Resource will disseminate culturally competent prevention messages to 2,000 individuals and refer HIV positive individuals and high-risk negatives to medical care and other support services. The Black Men’s Xchange New York, NY – $50,000 African Americans have been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic. Though African Americans represent only 13% of the U.S. population, they account for 40% of the 944,306 AIDS cases diagnosed since the beginning of the epidemic, and 50% of cases diagnosed in 2004 alone. African American MSM have been particularly hard hit, with a study of five major U.S. cities indicating that 46% of African American MSM were infected with HIV, as opposed to 21% of white MSM and 17% of Latino MSM. The Black Men’s Xchange-New York (BMX-NY) was founded in 2002 to conduct advocacy and education activities that promote healthy behaviors and critical consciousness among African-descended men. BMX-NY will expand a pilot program targeted at decreasing the ignorance, stigma, and homophobia among African Americans in the New York Metropolitan area, which remains the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Through two series of community education/engagement forums, BMX-NY will create an environment conducive to the opening discussions on how to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and collectively craft effective strategies for building individual capacity to avoid or change self-destructive behavior. Women Subject to Domestic Violence Global AIDS Alliance (GAA) Washington, DC, - $300,000 Women who experience violence may be up to three times more likely to acquire HIV. There are about 18 million women living with HIV/AIDS worldwide – 46% of the global total. In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 50% of all adults with HIV/AIDS are women. The Global AIDS Alliance (GAA) was formed in 2001 to mobilize the political will—and the financial resources—needed to mount a comprehensive response to the global AIDS pandemic. Violence, including forced or coerced sex rape, ad sexual abuse, is a leading HIV risk factor form women worldwide. Even the threat of violence compounds the risk of HIV infection, because a woman’s inability to negotiate safer sex and refuse unwanted sex is closely linked to the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. Over the next two years, Global AIDS Alliance will work to prevent HIV/AIDS through the launch of Zero Tolerance, an advocacy campaign to reduce violence against women and children, that will 1) mobilize stakeholders to increase funding for programs that address violence against women and children and ensure effective monitoring and accountability, 2) persuade U.S. policymakers to adopt more effective policies and allocate the dedicated funding needed to address violence against women and children, and 3) support civil-society in South Africa in order to scale up effective programs and establish country-level model of zero-tolerance approach to violence against women and children. Injection Drug Users Harm Reduction Coalition New York, NY – $100,000 In the United States, 25% of all new HIV infections are a result of injection drug use. Among women, an estimated 61% of AIDS cases are due to injection drug use or the result of sexual contact with someone who contracted HIV through injection drug use. Once infected, HIV positive drug users have the highest morbidity and mortality rates and progress to AIDS faster than any other group. The Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC) was founded in 1994 to promote the health and human rights of drug users and to confront the adverse effects of drug use by advocating for effective policy responses to drug-related harms and by serving as an incubator for new ideas and as a curator of best practices for the harm reduction movement. A 2002 national study found that the number of syringe exchange programs, as well as the areas offering syringe exchange, was decreasing while the number of syringes exchanged was increasing. HRC will bring its regional programs to the national level through a technical assistance model that will increase the ability of syringe exchange programs to prevent HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C transmission through easier syringe access, increased knowledge and resources to address hepatitis C (since one-third of all HIV infected people are co-infected with hepatitis C), and greater promotion of overdose education and prevention programs. People Living with HIV CHAMP New York, NY – $50,000 To increase the effectiveness of HIV prevention research and planning for prevention programs, HIV positive people must be included in the planning process in a more meaningful way. CHAMP was founded in 2003 to ensure the development of a broad and effective range of HIV prevention options in the next decade by amplifying the voice of the HIV/AIDS community in HIV prevention policies. The CHAMP Academy is a training institute that develops, implements and evaluates interactive workshops and trainings to give community members tools for understanding HIV prevention research and translating community experiences and concerns into research priorities. Graduates of the trainings will be linked as members of CHAMP’s HIV Prevention Network, which uses internet technology and teleconferencing to disseminate information quickly to community members, allowing CHAMP to document the continued involvement of network members in HIV prevention research efforts.