Avahan

Avahan

Formation	2003
Purpose	HIV prevention
Region served	South India and Northeast States
Parent organisation	Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Website	http://www.gatesfoundation.org/avahan/

Avahan (Hindi: आवाहन, lit. 'Invocation')^[1] was an initiative sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to reduce the spread of HIV in India. It began in 2003 and by 2013, the control of the programme transitioned to the Government of India in phases.^[2] As of 2009 the Gates Foundation had pledged US$338 million to the programme, whose aim was to reduce HIV transmission and the prevalence of STIs in vulnerable high-risk populations, notably female sex workers, MSM, and injecting drug users (IDU), through prevention education and services such as condom promotion, STI management, behaviour change communication, community mobilisation, and advocacy. Avahan worked in six high-prevalence states. All the states in India who had a HIV prevalence of more than 1 per cent in the year 2002, were considered as HIV high-prevalent states. All the states had a lead partner and other NGOs and CBOs at the district-level who implemented the prevention programme. India HIV/AIDS Alliance was the state lead partner in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka Health Promotion Trust in Karnataka, Path Finder in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu AIDS Initiative and Voluntary Health Services (VHS) in Tamil Nadu. The other two states are Nagaland and Manipur in the North-East of India had Emmanuel Hospital Association and Australian International Health Institute as lead partners.[1] Apart from the State Lead Partners, Avahan had cross-cutting partners for advocacy in Centre for Advocacy and Research, for Police Advocacy in Constella Futures, care and support in Care International.^[3] After Avahan, BMGF shifted its focus on TB, maternal and child health and other areas like polio.^[4]