A nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing preventable health and social problems in communities of need locally and internationally
The Problem
HIV/AIDS is devastating many of the poorest regions of the world. Prevention activities are uneven and treatment with antiretrovirals (ARVs) is even less available. India is one of the countries where HIV rates are increasing the fastest. Treatment and prevention activities are not available in many parts of this country.
To help address this crisis, the Undaunted Carnival Foundation is partnering with Seva Mandir, a well-established nonprofit organization in the Rajasthan region of India. Seva Mandir, through its various charitable works and microenterprise economic development projects, has a client base of over 300,000 people. While visiting Seva Mandir, we saw the lack of resources for young people as one of the key issues.
The youth of the Rajasthan communities have little economic opportunity in their villages, and their education is often very limited. The combination of these two factors can be fatal. Without job or training opportunities, many youth migrate to the larger cities. There they can fall prey to risky behaviors that can lead to an HIV infection (such as substance abuse or high risk sexual behavior). They soon find the cities to be less hospitable places than they had hoped or anticipated, and they migrate back to their villages.
Because literacy is low (particularly health literacy), they do not know about prevention and testing opportunities for HIV. Many of the youth may be infected with HIV and not know it. They then spread the virus throughout their local communities.