VHS - DIVA Project

Pl view www.vhsdiva.org for more information

Voluntary Health Services Voluntary Health Services (VHS) hospital, established in 1958, is a 465 bedded multi-speciality tertiary teaching hospital. The hospital has a dedicated department working with vulnerable and marginalised communities to improve their health and economic status and advocates to secure human rights an...

Sharing Inspiring Story of Preethisha - Meet the India's first Transgender Delivery Agent

https://www.theweek.in/leisure/society/2018/08/01/i-refuse-to-beg-or-pr******te-india-first-transgender-delivery-agent.html

Aher Abheena Laxmi Narayan Tripathi Shree Gauri Sawant Zainab J Patel Sarah Zaidi Asia Pacific Transgender Network Shankari Gauri Inad Quinones Rendon Gireesh Kumar

'I refuse to beg or pr******te myself': India's first transgender delivery agent "I want people to understand that transgender people can live dignified lives"

VHS MSA-DIVA Project is pleased to invite you all for our poster presentations and film screening in International AIDS Conference Amsterdam. Below are the details, Please Join Us🙏

Vivek Anand Murugesan Sivasubramanian Yashwinder Singh Darvesh Singh Yadavendra Suhail Abbasi Joselyn Pang Rebecca L Gupta-Lawrence Jenny Xia Ryan Joseph Figueiredo Midnight Niké Panusart Inad Quinones Rendon Niluka Perera Joe Wong Marli GP Arie ArieArie Aries Valeriano Stuart Watson Eamonn Murphy Aher Abheena Simran Shaikh Amrita Sarkar Amruta Soni Safir Soeparna Alexander Medik Milima Dangol Tara Chettry Masud Alam Shale Ahmed Rozan Kathmandu RD Marte

We are pleased to share the first poster of “Pack of 5 Culturally Competent Interpersonal Communication Videos to support Transgender and Hijra Service Delivery Programmes in India.” The movie will be screened at IAS 2018, Amsterdam. The teaser will be released on 13 July 2018– Keep Watching This Space ☺️🙏
Shankari Gauri Gireesh Kumar John Son Arumugam Vijayaraman Midnight Niké Panusart Inad Quinones Rendon Ali Usman Qasim Iqbal Sarah Zaidi Zainab J Patel Murugesan Sivasubramanian Gideon Lubin Balasingam Greg Gray Joselyn Pang Cat Hudson Eamonn Murphy Aries Valeriano Stuart Watson Nandini Kapoor APCOM Multi-Country South Asia Global Fund HIV Programme Joe Wong Marli GP Cianán Russell Ed Settle Rajesh Rana Shantanu Purohit Purvi Shah Mohan D. Sundararaj Mohamed Rafique Mukta Sharma Laxmi Narayan Tripathi Aher Abheena Amruta Soni Darvesh Singh Yadavendra Humsafar Trust Wajood

On 11.06.18, Sensitisation program with Health Care Providers was organised by VHS – MSA – DIVA Project in association with Srusti Sankula one of the CBO working in Gadag district, Karnataka. Counselors and Lab technicians from ICTC centres from Gadag district participated in the meeting. Understanding Transgender Person, Accept them as they are, Services available for Transgenders other than HIV, Supreme Court Judgement and 90-90-90 concept was discussed in the meeting. Dr. Chandrakala, District Medical Officer, Gadag, Mr. Basvaraj, District Supervisor, DAPCU, Aditya Program Manager from Srusti Sankula and Mr. Johnson Regional Manager from VHS – MSA – DIVA Project were the Resource persons in the sensitisation program.

We welcome the official statement of the Indian Psychiatric Society - To stop considering homosexuality as an illness and we hope that it will prevent doctors from practising ‘conversion therapies. Humsafar Trust APCOM Multi-Country South Asia Global Fund HIV Programme Being LGBTI in Asia Asia Pacific Transgender Network Gaurav Cbo

Stop considering homosexuality as an illness: Psychiatric society to members Doctors and LGBTQ activists have welcomed the Indian Psychiatric Society’s statement and are hopeful that it will prevent doctors from practising ‘conversion therapies’.

On 15th of April 2018, VHS - MSA - DIVA Project celebrated Transgenders day in association with Vellore district Transgender Federation at Vellore district, Tamil Nadu. On these occasion, VHS launched Transgender Digital Resource Directory (online platform through website where the links are available on various community related information.). VHS - MSA - DIVA Project has developed this directory for documenting and capturing about Transgender / Hijra related informations in India. And published knowledge products on Resource Mobilisation. This is an reference guide to those CBOs who want to raise funds using cultural events as source. Both of these documentations were published by Sri. K.C.. Veeramani., Honourable Minister for Commercial Taxes, Government of Tamil Nadu and other special invitees.

Transgender Day celebration event 2018 - Gujarat. We wish to express our deep sense of gratitude to Hon. Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat Government. I would greatly appreciate the Lakshya Trust, Gujarat & GSACS representatives for their immense contribution to the state level advocacy.

We wish to express our deep sense of gratitude to all the representatives of seven UN agencies and UNAIDS for their active participation in and immense contribution to the successful launch of UBRF in Gujarat on 11th May,2018.

It is our pleasure to put on record the participation of WHO , UNICEF , ILO ,UNDP ,UNESCO , UNODC , UNFPA - the co-sponsors of UBRAF and the UNAIDS

The function was participated by 1121 registered participants ( including 250 persons from the K.P./community-PLHIV,MSM,FSW)from different districts of Gujarat besides ALL the senior officers of the Department of Health and Family Welfare- Addl. Chief Secretary ,Principal Secretary and Commissioner ,Health, Medical Services ,Medical Education and training, Mission Director, NHM, Gujarat and AD(MS),AD(PH),AD(ME)-the Additional Directors(technical Heads of the respective departments-Medical Services, Medical Education,Public Health etc.) and Health and Medical service officers from the field and APD and GSACS personnel facilitated and actively led by the Project Director madam.

The auditorium was full to its capacity of seating arrangement for 1200 persons. The historic occasion was graced by the presence of the UNAIDS,UN agencies and the Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat .

We are fully committed to take up all the proposed activities ( in direct consultation and guidance of the respective components/Divisions of the NACO),in accordance with the National AIDS Control Programme in general and the National Strategic Plan in particular, GSACS being an integral part of the NACO family.

Regards and best wishes,
Dr Rajesh Gopal APD,GSACS

Community-based and Peer-led HIV testing in Viet Nam improves access to care.
Health workers—from the MSM, FSW and PWID communities were trained to use both oral swab and finger prick kits and to counsel their peers to test. Last year, 2520 people at risk of HIV in Thai Nguyen and Can Tho provinces were supported by a peer to get tested. Among those, 140 people were diagnosed with HIV, and 131 of them started treatment.
In 2017, community-based testing identified 60% of all newly-diagnosed HIV cases in Thai Nguyen and 30% of new cases in Can Tho. Nearly 70% of the people who took an HIV test in the pilot were first-time testers. This suggests that the community-based approach is achieving its goal of “reaching the unreached”.

Cheryl Case Johnson

http://www.wpro.who.int/mediacentre/features/20180507/en/

Doing it for themselves: Peer-led HIV testing in Viet Nam improves access to care

Today Ms. Priya our Senior Manager – Knowledge Management facilitated a meeting between Transgender Community and the Amazon Regional Officials Mr.Vijay and Mr.Chandrasekar in Chennai to create job opportunities. The community representatives took lead in the advocacy dialogue and explored possibilities of different job positions, gender neutral toilets and special workplace policies in the Amazon outlets. The discussion was fruitful, and Amazon Regional Office Chennai agreed to recruit Transgender members. If a good number of people are enrolled for the job, the agency can even plan an entirely TG Led Outlet in Chennai. Thanks to our strong CBOs Sahodaran Chennai Sudha Thirunangai Multi-Country South Asia Global Fund HIV Programme Marli GP Asia Pacific Transgender Network John Son Shankari Gauri Sharan Karthik Raj Gireesh Kumar