UNODC is cosponsor of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS - UNAIDS
Project G86 : Project Activities - Women's Self Help Groups
SHG members exhibiting their products
One of the key approaches is the establishment of support groups of affected and afflicted women /spouses of drug users to provide psychosocial support. Majority of the SHGs members' (Partners / Spouses of substance abusers) have experienced violence, emotional tress, isolation and economic insecurity because of substance abuse.
The Project has been successful in forming 124 SHGs, spread across the country. Each SHG has an average of 9-10 members and meets about 2-3 times a month. They are being capacitated by the Peer Educators to access available health related services, legal, besides this, knowledge and information on HIV/AIDS/ STD; safer sexual practices are being imparted.
Some of the SHGs' have started initiating small income generating activities and are able to support the educational need of their children and supplement the household income.
The SHG movement has begun to show encouraging results in several states.
About 30 SHGs have initiated small-scale marketable income generation activities through the support of the NGOs.
The 110 Peer Educators, a fourth of them are females, spouses, partners and female recovering form substance abuse, have identified 4,790 drug users, and sensitized 4,472 community stake holders through 408 advocacy meetings and 260 awareness programs.
21 Drop-in-Centres have been set up for the drug users to access recreational facilities, counseling and referral services. It has been reported that 15% of the SHG beneficiaries are accessing STD treatments and 45 % are seeking counseling on health related issues. Some are also accessing the services of VCCTC, PPTCT and ART. 22% - 65% of the beneficiaries are now using condom.
SHG members exhibiting their products
A Turmeric farm being managed by a SHG
A SHG meeting in progress
