Asha Foundation

This was established by ASHA Foundation in 1998 and was the first Helpline for the state of Karnataka and the third one in the country. This Helpline was established because people were hesitant to come out in the open and clarify their doubts. They preferred anonymity and confidentiality which was provided by the helpline. From 1998 to 2011 this Interactive voice response system received and responded to around 3,88,000 calls. In the year 2000, a manual telephone counselling system was also added and so far has received almost 31,000 calls. In addition, there is face-to-face counselling for HIV/AIDS with HIV testing. Almost 10,000 counselling sessions have been conducted. Awareness programs on HIV for thousands of metro construction workers, contract labourers, police training college trainees, garment workers, auto drivers, housemaids and street vendors, anganwadis, doctors, nurses, teachers, nursing students, medical students community health workers and laypeople.

Adolescent Health Education was launched in the year 2000 as there was a rising concern that 35% of all those infected with HIV were in the age group of 15 to 25 years. The project involves empowering adolescents in the area of preventing HIV/AIDS. As years passed on the curriculum changed to character building, life skills and value-based adolescent health education focussing on non-cognitive skills which are very important for holistic development. An in-house resource manual for teachers was developed, and students work books and parents' manuals were developed. There are three units -the first unit is taught in class 7, the second in class 8 and the third in class 9. Teachers are trained to teach the curriculum in 3-day workshops conducted by master trainers. So far, 3500 teachers have been trained, more than 3 lakh students have used the curriculum and in 2019-2020, 546 institutions and 54,800 students were using the curriculum.

ASHA Foundation provides educational support through financial support for HIV-infected and affected children, nutritional and medical support for HIV-infected children, men and women including widows. WIPRO has supported ASHA Foundation for the last six years in providing finance for educational support for HIV-infected and affected children. ASHA Foundation conducts a free HIV /AIDS clinic three times a week and empowers women through the formation of Self Help Groups, job placement, loans, and knowledge on all aspects of HIV/AIDS.

HIV can be transmitted from an HIV positive pregnant mother to her newborn child during pregnancy, labour, delivery and breastfeeding. In India, there is a 45 % chance of newborns getting infected at birth and remaining infected throughout life. By identifying HIV positive pregnant mothers and treating them with Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), the babies can be prevented from acquiring HIV. So far more than 2,00,000 pregnant women have been tested for HIV, and around 1025 were HIV positive and treated, Risk of transmission was reduced from 45 % to 1.85%.

Camp Rainbow is a psychosocial program to provide opportunities for children living with HIV (10 to 16 years) to participate in HIV education and traditional camp activities through the vehicle of residential and day camps. It aims at enhancing campers' adherence to treatment and medication, to improve their quality of life with the focus on primarily providing children with serious fun! It ensures that they improve social peer relationships. It reduces stigma and discrimination within the community as it invites the youth to participate in this structured program as camp staff. The program is called Camp ‘RAINBOW’ because the Rainbow has colours and children love colours. Also in many civilizations ‘RAINBOW’ is a symbol of hope.

ASHA Foundation has built the capacity of teachers, doctors, nurses, medical students, nursing students, community health workers and paramedical staff through their training programs. They have participated in advocacy meetings for PLHIV. ASHA Foundation is recognised as a research organisation by dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.
Focus areas of research:
• Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV
• Adolescent Health Education
• Paediatric HIV Infection
• Adult HIV infection
• Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS
• Counselling, including telephone counselling