Founded in 1999, Alliance India is a non-governmental organisation operating in partnership with civil society, government and communities to support sustained responses to HIV in India that protect rights and improve health. Complementing the Indian national programme, they build capacity, provide technical support and advocate to strengthen the delivery of effective, innovative, community-based HIV programmes to vulnerable populations: sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender people, hijras, people who inject drugs (PWID), and people living with HIV.

Alliance India's programmes foster wellbeing, realise equality, and affirm the dignity of communities most affected by HIV/AIDS.

Leveraging its implementation experience, it works closely with the Alliance Regional Technical Support Hub for South AsiaSouth Asia Hub Official Website to strengthen capacity of civil society organisations, government and the private sector in South Asia to respond more effectively to HIV/AIDS.

An independent national non-governmental organization (NGO) managed and governed wholly in India, Alliance India is also an accredited member of the global network of Linking Organisations of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.

Technical priorities Alliance India works in the following technical areas of the HIV response in India: HIV Prevention Care and Support HIV and SRH Harm Reduction and Drug use

Current programmes Vihaan

Named for the Sanskrit word for 'dawn's first light,' Vihaan is a national initiative establishing and managing 350 Care & Support Centres (CSCs) across India to expand access to essential services, increase treatment adherence, reduce stigma and discrimination, and improve the quality of life of people living with HIV (PLHIV). The programme is designed as the care & support component of the country's HIV response under National AIDS Control Programme IV (NACP IV). Working in collaboration with the Department of AIDS Control and with support from the Global Fund, the programme operates in 31 states and territories and will reach more than one million PLHIV by 2016. The Vihaan consortium is led by Alliance India and 17 state-level PLHIV networks and NGOs that in turn partner with district-level PLHIV networks and other organisations to deliver care & support services in communities. Vihaan provides access to a range of quality care & support services using an integrated approach that complements existing HIV prevention and treatment programming. Working in coordination with nearby ART Centres, CSCs serve as safe spaces for PLHIV offering services that include counselling, outreach and follow-up support, health referrals, and linkages to social welfare schemes.

Samarth

In implementation since 2016 with support from Elton John AIDS Foundation, Samarth, (meaning competent) project provides community-led HIV screening and treatment linkages for men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender and hijra (TGH) population by ensuring confidential and sensitive dealing of various sexual health-related issues. Samarth community clinics are implemented through a consortium of five partners, Lakshya Trust, Sangama Trust, Amitie Trust, Udaan Trust and Shaan Foundation in seven cities: Noida (Delhi NCR), Jalandhar (Punjab), Vadodara (Gujarat), Hyderabad (Telangana), Hooghly (West Bengal), Hassan (Karnataka) and Pune (Maharashtra).

Samarth is the first community-based testing intervention implemented in India with the support of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) for MSM and TGH population. The project works closely with NACO & State AIDS Control Societies. The project has helped the national programme to gather higher reactivity among MSM & TGH person, reach out to the new population, not yet served under targeted interventions, for prevention services and to increase health-seeking behaviour among them.

Sampoorna

Sampoorna (meaning 'Holistic' or “Complete” in Hindi) Project is implemented in nine priority districts of Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Surat, Sabarkatha, Banaskatha, Vadodara, Chota Udaipur, Aravali, Kheda and Anand) focusing on creating viable ecosystems to strengthen HIV–SRH at service delivery and community level. Supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the project was rolled out in April 2020 for the project cycle 2020–2022. In the wake of COVID-19 outbreak, the project has included COVID-19 response to address the access gaps in ART medications and reproductive health products along with mental health counselling for PLHIV and high-risk groups. The field staff include outreach workers of Care and Support Centres (CSCs), Targeted Interventions (TIs), Link Workers Scheme (LWS), frontline workers of National Health Mission – ASHA and ANM.

A number of studies have generated evidence indicating that SRH and HIV issues are intertwined. However, both these programmes work in parallel without concrete collaborations. While we are aiming towards ambitious targets of SDGs to be achieved till 2030, we need to bridge the gaps between SRH & HIV and work towards integrated training, service provision and counselling for holistic (Sampoorna) health response to our communities. This will improve access to information and risk perception, improve continuity of care, and reduce the cost of services and would also lead to improved client-health worker relationships. Moreover, SRH needs of the key population – women in sex work (WISW) and transgender (TGs) seeking reproductive and sexual services are not met due to lack of enabling environment and specific services for them.

The project will demonstrate stronger and sustainable SRH-HIV integration at medical colleges, 70 CHCs & PHCs and also at the state level. Larger advocacy framework of this programme will work towards mainstreaming issues related to stigma and discrimination, gender-based violence and community system strengthening. The key strategies will involve; evidence-based advocacy with State AIDS Control organization and NHM, capacity building of medical and paramedical staff with an integrated module on SRH-HIV and capacity building of frontline NHM health workers as well as HIV TI NGOs on delivery of integrated services. The project will also identify and empower community champions for the sustainability of the project. Furthermore, the district mentors will supervise and facilitate the continuation of essential SRH-HIV services among women, adolescents, key populations and PLHIV.

Hridaya

Named for the Hindi word for 'heart,' the Hridaya programme expands harm reduction services for people who inject drugs (PWID), their partners and families and fosters an enabling environment by protecting and promoting their rights. The programme leverages the existing government investment in HIV prevention for PWID and builds NGO capacity to expand services to include a full range of harm reduction interventions. Hridaya is funded by the Government of Netherlands and is part of the five-country Community Action on Harm Reduction initiative. The programme in India complements and supplements the services of Targeted Interventions (TIs) in selected states. TIs are at the centre of the HIV prevention approach for PWID adopted by the Department of AIDS Control and implemented by State AIDS Control Societies (SACS) around the country. Hridaya works in partnership with 34 organisations to augment existing capacity and fill implementation gaps in harm reduction in the states of Bihar, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Jammu, and Manipur. By the end of 2014, the programme will reach more than 50,000 beneficiaries, including more than 10,000 PWID.

Past programmes HRAsia (Harm Reduction Advocacy in Asia grant)

People who inject drugs in Asia are disproportionately affected by HIV, despite the region seeing an overall decline in HIV rates. In 2018, UNAIDS reported HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs in Southeast Asia to be highest in the Philippines (29%), Indonesia (28.76%), and Thailand (19.02%). Access to combination prevention services, especially Harm Reduction, remains a challenge in a few countries according to survey data from 2016 to 2018.

The Global Fund's Harm Reduction Advocacy in Asia grant (HRAsia) is based on learning from the earlier national programme. Since 2017, the regional grant focuses on advocacy to achieve the long-term sustainability of harm reduction interventions in line with the 90-90-90 targets in seven high priority countries of Asia through our country partners in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Our technical partners under the regional grant are the International Drug Policy Consortium, a global network of 182 NGOs, Asian Network of People who Use Drugs, the regional community-led organization and Harm Reduction International, a leading NGO dedicated to reducing the negative health, social and legal impacts of drug use and drug policy.

WINGS

Alliance India piloted WINGS, an intervention model for addressing gender-based violence (GBV) and intimate partner violence (IPV) against women using drugs (WUDs), in 2017 with support from Frontline AIDS. As a successful model, Alliance India is currently implementing the third phase of WINGS intervention from June to December 2019 in partnership with Sahara Aalhad in Pune, Ganga Social Foundation in Delhi and Nirvana Foundation in Manipur.

WINGS is an evidence-based screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment service tool designed to identify the intimate partner violence and gender-based violence for women who use drugs. The intervention enables participating women to develop safety planning strategies and strengthen their social support networks. WINGS can be delivered in one to two sessions and has been integrated with HIV counselling and testing and linkage to HIV treatment interventions.

LINKAGES

Building on the years of experience of closely working with HRG communities on HIV prevention, treatment and care, Alliance India directly implemented LINKAGES project supported by FHI 360 funded by USAIDS PEPFAR in six high burden districts of Maharashtra (Mumbai, Pune and Thane) and Andhra Pradesh (Krishna, Guntur and East Godavari) starting from August 2017. For the first time, an HIV programme was designed to provide HIV services to the scattered MSM and TG population in remote sub-districts of rural districts.

As an attempt to reduce structural barriers, the Linkages project collaborated with 16 community-based organisations and 77 targeted interventions of State AIDS Control Organisations. The staff serving female sex workers and MSM and TGs were trained on gender-based violence and violence mitigation, laws and policies that can harm or help the community and supported in advocacy activities with the stakeholders. On the other hand, had a series of sensitization meetings and training with health care providers which lead to increased service uptake. To ensure that communities continue to serve beyond the project period, efforts were put in strengthening the institution and organisational development for community-based organisations in the two states.

Chanura Kol