Lucknow: North India’s first Transgender Health clinic celebrated their first successful anniversary in Lucknow. First ever Trans Community Health Clinic in Northern India was then formally inaugurated by Anita C. Meshram IAS, then Project Director UPSACS on 24th September 2021.
YR Gaitonde Medical, Educational and Research Foundation (YRG CARE) is the implementation partner UPSACS since May 2021 with funding from Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) is envisioned to implement and create novel models of HIV prevention, testing, treatment, and care in selected districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Trans Health Clinic had been established in Lucknow to provide comprehensive service packages for Transgender communities including HIV and non-HIV services. Clinic evolved through structured community consultation which was done under the leadership Dr. Heera Lal (IAS), Additional Project Director, UPSACS on 1the 11th of August 2021 wherein Transgender community leaders had gathered, identified the location, operations timing, modalities of service packages along with the services of the clinic.
Completing a year of trans-clinic, UPSACS and the project team is delighted to share the reach of more than 600 transpersons in Lucknow and adjoining district with health and non-health services.
Program activities include supporting enhanced peer outreach to identify gaps in the HIV continuum of care, estimating KP size and distribution to inform quality improvement activities, and implementing and assessing prevention and differentiated ART delivery strategies. The project is guided by evidence-based practice that are aimed at improving the HIV cascade to achieve 95-95-95 targets.
ACCELERATE program is a USAID-funded implementation science initiative that provides technical assistance to Indian National, State, and District HIV/AIDS programs to deliver comprehensive HIV prevention and treatment services to FSW, MSM, PWID, and transgender persons (TG), their children and partners. The overarching objective of ACCELERATE is to implement and assess models to deliver a high impact on HIV and social services for KP in India.
For transgender population, the current standard under the National AIDS Control Program is to deliver HIV services through targeted nterventions (TI) which are implemented by NGO/CBOs for prevention services.
Who are Transgender & their Life?
Transgender is an umbrella term, that encompasses people who have a gender identity or gender expression, which differs from their sex assigned at birth.
Being independent ofsexual orientation, they have often been classified as the “third sex.” Based on various socioculturaltraditions and beliefs, they are frequently “othered,” discriminated, and stigmatized. This has led to their limited social inclusion and participation.
The current HIV prevalence among the transgender population in India is 3.14% as per the HSS 2017 which brings together data from diverse sources into one visual tool. Given that the Transgender population has broader health care needs beyond HIV, offering comprehensive services will most likely increase access to and adherence to STI/HIV prevention and treatment services and increase overall health and wellbeing. In many health care settings, transgender and gender nonconforming individuals experience discrimination and mistreatment.
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