Under the second Government of Barbados/World Bank HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Project, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Barbados will get funds totaling $3.2 million to help in the national HIV/AIDS response.
Grants of $10 000 to $20 000 will be available for the successful applicants to provide HIV-related interventions.
As per the Director of the National HIV/AIDS Commission (NHAC), Jacqueline Wiltshire-Gay, CSOs are being invited to submit proposals to reduce HIV in the society, especially among those considered to be the Most At-Risk Populations (MARPs). These groups, she said, include sex workers; youth; people living with HIV and AIDS; men who have sex with men; single unemployed women; prisoners and drugs users, among others.
Her comments came during the official launch of the scheme during a press conference at the NHAC’s Warrens Office yesterday morning.
According to the Deputy Director of the NHAC and Manager of the Scheme, Lynn Armstrong, Civil Society Partners are critical to the National AIDS Program, and they are hoping to scale up that response.
“The reality is that best practice approaches for prevention include that these agencies are really going to be a major tool to assist the Commission in terms of prevention activities,” she said.
Armstrong said that any civil society organization that has formulated a well-defined HIV project proposal can apply. Those proposals must be costed, must include monitoring indicators, and expected outcomes.
“Prevention is going to be the focus of this Civil Society Grant Scheme and those agencies, as the director has said, will be working with the most at-risk populations, will indeed have priority. The first closing date for us is September 15, that however is going to be a rolling date because this is the start of an ongoing program… it is to be established into the official work of the Commission, so I will not say it will end when the World Bank loan finishes,” she said.
The projects can focus on such areas as drug use prevention; condom distribution among key populations at higher risk; behavior change communication, as well as advocacy and support for persons living with HIV. Interested organizations can either collect the forms from the NHAC or download them online.
