This is the third and final abstract of the papers being presented at the International AIDS Society conference in South Africa this week.
[him] moderator
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Meeting the livelihood and support needs of people affected by HIV (MLSN-PHIV)
C. Thet, PLHAs SHG Groups
PACT Myanmar, Health/Worth, Yangon, Myanmar
Under the project, Meeting the Livelihood and Support Needs of People Affected by HIV (MLSN-PHIV), intervention was carried out to assist affected persons and their families through creating a mechanism to help people address the economic challenges inflicted by HIV with strengthening support groups through January to December 2007. The objectives of the research were to recruit & build commitment among HIV affected individuals and families to develop and direct programmes to mitigate the economic and psychosocial impact of HIV, to empower communities of individuals and families affected by HIV to develop and manage a community development fund designed to address the economic challenges that households affected by HIV, to building skills of HIV affected families to mitigate the economic and health impacts of HIVand to support individuals and families affected by HIV to build and sustain informal organizations of people affected by HIV that design and implement HIV prevention and care programs and that create to maintain psychosocial actions.
With seven different activities conducted by the researcher and managed through PACT, the intervention program helped 500 HIV affected families with income and social development, community response to HIV, creating and maintaining community organized fund, community home based care, vocational and business training, guardian care taker training. So far, 433-trained affected individuals of 15 groups of the PHIV groups in Yangon learnt regular saving systems for own fund and also became skilled in accounting and book keeping, there has been awareness on the roles and responsibilities PHIV; leadership building to lead their own group as well as community has been established; sixteen self help groups in Yangoon have formed stronger support networks and there has been increases awareness on importance of self-reliance and self-planning for further developments because of income generation and fund management skills trainings from PACT.
http://www.ias2009.org/pag/Abstracts.aspx?AID=90
