VULNERABLE GROUPS

The Problem 

Vulnerable Groups refers to those communities who face a high risk of HIV infection but who have been marginalised by society including:

• Men who have sex with men (MSM)
• Transgender communities
• Sex workers
• Detained / prison populations
• Injecting drug users (IDU)
    

Their status as outside of the mainstream, and highly stigmatised, means that they are not reached by general information campaigns and are excluded, or exclude themselves, from many health & HIV/AIDS services.
 

Social exclusion is often exacerbated by criminalisation of these communities with, for example, laws against same sex behaviour existing in 85 countries. Harassment from the police frequently drives these communities underground making them even harder to reach and often forcing more risky behaviour through ignorance or lack of access to prevention mechanisms like clean needles or condoms.
 

Our Response

EJAF believes that everyone, regardless of ethnicity, sexual orientation, employment or situation, has the right to access the best available medical and social services and live in dignity, free from persecution. We are proud to have funded grassroots organisations working with vulnerable communities who frequently found it difficult to get funding elsewhere.
 

We have helped many such organisations to establish themselves as a powerful voice for their community for example, in India, we supported NAZ Foundation to develop an MSM support network, put MSM and transgender populations on the government's HIV/AIDS agenda and build the capacity of smaller local community based organisations to meet the needs of their communities.
 

In the Ukraine we are funding comprehensive HIV/AIDS services for IDU and MSM including antiretroviral therapy for those who need it. In Kenya we are funding a programme that, in conjunction with the Kenyan Prison Service, is providing HIV information, testing and support to male youth in detention.
 

Many of these programmes are groundbreaking pilot models, which, when proven, we would look to national governments to fund and expand.
  

For more information on some of our current programmes on this theme, please click on one of the 3 projects featured above.
 

To learn more about which countries feature this theme as a current funding priority for us please see our country and grant strategy pages.