FHI 360 has been awarded a five-year project by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to improve India’s capacity to deliver HIV services to people who inject drugs, a key population. The goal of Project Sunrise is to build institutional and human capacity to improve and scale up the quality of a comprehensive package of services in the northeast region of the country. The project focuses on 20 districts, across eight states, with a high prevalence of HIV and reaches approximately 30,000 people through 80 existing interventions that are funded by the Government of India under the National AIDS Control Program. Harm reduction is one of the objectives of the program and refers to a set of practical strategies and ideas for reducing negative consequences associated with drug use.
The project will:
- Assess programmatic gaps and barriers and identify strategies for improving the delivery of harm reduction services
- Enhance the capacity of state-level institutions to increase the coverage and quality of services for this population
- Improve the training of a harm reduction workforce
- Implement lower-threshold strategies for needle-syringe exchange programs, to improve opioid substitution therapy services
- Monitor progress and improve service delivery by establishing a real-time monitoring system in six districts that will capture data at service delivery points
- Implement HIV interventions in central and district prisons, with the support of prison authorities and local nongovernmental organizations
- Improve services for women who inject drugs and their spouses in ways that address their unique needs
- Use approaches such as community-based HIV testing and safe disposal of used needles and syringes
- Scale up methadone programs in a phased manner in high-priority districts
- Strengthen linkages with other health and social welfare institutions to facilitate the social re-integration of people who inject drugs and people living with HIV
