Today, AHF is every bit a global organization. One of the most exciting regions in which AHF has made an impact is India, where two of our team members are helping do incredible work, save lives, and advocate for the rights of underserved people who need them most.
AHF Unfiltered: India Spotlight
Bringing attention to incredible work happening across the Atlantic
GUEST BIO:
Dr. V. Sam Prasad is Country Program Director for India, overseeing the overall operations of the AHF for India Cares including the Rapid Testing Program and two HIV clinics in the country, one in Mumbai and one in Delhi.
Prince Manvendra Gohil is Grand Ambassador for AHF and Ambassador Consultant for AHF India. He was first introduced to AHF in 2015, and since then has served the people of India and beyond.
CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:
[8:29] - HIV in India
A challenging history with a promising future
HIV was first detected in India in 1986, but antiretroviral therapy didn’t arrive in the country until 2004. As a result, it’s estimated that around 2.3 million people live with HIV in India— one of the highest HIV populations in the world. But as we’ll learn throughout this episode, AHF is working tirelessly to change that.
[10:49] - Strategies for Saving Patients & Curing Stigmas
Finding success in a challenging environment
In India, the battle begins with mainstreaming communities most affected by the health needs the AHF serves— and reaching them after hours when they’re most active. Then AHF provides testing, free condoms (there is a strong stigma against condoms in India), and much more.
[17:51] - More People, Greater Reach
Top priorities for social engagement in India
AHF in India is actively trying to network with as many organizations, people, government agencies, corporate entities, and more. The more stakeholders you involve, particularly in a country of over a billion people, the more social reach you’ll be able to achieve with your message and your services.
[20:08] - Celebrating Lifesaving Wins
Dr. V. Sam Prasad & Prince Manvendra Gohil proudest moments
Dr. V. Sam Prasad lists among his proudest moments the MOONLIGHT program, ASAP, and the new “I to WE” program that is designed to help turn Illness into Wellness by helping take people with sickness from being alone to being part of a supportive community. Meanwhile, Prince Manvendra Gohil highlights one of her proudest moments as being AHF taking the initiative in addressing the drug pricing issues in the pharmaceutical industry, which affects people in communities all over the globe.
RESOURCES:
FOLLOW:
ABOUT AFTER HOURS:
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is the world’s largest HIV/AIDS service organization, operating in 45 countries globally. The mission? Providing cutting-edge medicine and advocacy for everyone, regardless of ability to pay.
The After Hours podcast is an official podcast of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, in which host Lauren Hogan is joined by experts in a range of fields to educate, inform, and inspire listeners on topics that go far beyond medical information to cover leadership, creativity, and success.
Learn more at: https://www.aidshealth.org
ABOUT THE HOST:
Lauren Hogan is the Associate Director of Communications for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and has been working in a series of roles with the Foundation since 2016. She’s passionate about increasing the public visibility of AIDS, the Foundation's critical work, and how everyday people can help join the fight to make cutting-edge medicine, treatment, and support available for anyone who needs it.
ABOUT DETROIT PODCAST STUDIOS:
In Detroit, history was made when Barry Gordy opened Motown Records back in 1960. More than just discovering great talent, Gordy built a systematic approach to launching superstars. His rigorous processes, technology, and development methods were the secret sauce behind legendary acts such as The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, and Michael Jackson.
As a nod to the past, Detroit Podcast Studios leverages modern versions of Motown’s processes to launch today’s most compelling podcasts. What Motown was to musical artists, Detroit Podcast Studios is to podcast artists today. With over 75 combined years of experience in content development, audio production, music scoring, storytelling, and digital marketing, Detroit Podcast Studios provides full-service development, training, and production capabilities to take podcasts from messy ideas to finely tuned hits.
Here’s to making (podcast) history together.
Learn more at: DetroitPodcastStudios.com
Lauren:
Get unfiltered lessons from our leaders at AHF, as we uncover real, raw stories of where we came from and where we are going. Join us for an unscripted look at the connections our senior leadership have to our mission, core values, and hot initiatives. AHF is the world's largest HIV/AIDS service organization, operating in 45 countries globally, 16 states domestically, including DC and Puerto Rico. Our mission is to provide cutting edge medicine and advocacy, regardless of ability to pay.
Lauren:
Hello, and welcome to the AHFter Hours Podcast. I'm your host, Lauren Hogan, serving as your liaison to take you through this journey to learn more about AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Before we start the show, please make sure to remember to check out the show notes so you can follow along. Now, let's get started.
Lauren:
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the AHFter Hours Podcast. As always, I am your host, Lauren Hogan, and we have an amazing and exciting episode today. We have the ability to spotlight one of our countries, which is India. So I have two special guests with me today. I have Dr. Sam, and Manvedra. So welcome to the show officially, you guys.
Dr. Manvedra:
Thank you.
Dr. Sam:
Thank you for this opportunity, Lauren. Thank you for hosting it for us. Thank you.
Lauren:
Absolutely. So we're going to just dive right in because I know all of our listeners are going to want to know everything, all things, India, you guys have such amazing things happening in the country. So first and foremost, I want to ask both of you guys, how did your journey in AHF begin? How did you guys get started? Dr. Sam, we'll start with you.
Dr. Sam:
All right. So, this is way back in 2012 when the AIDS conference at Washington, DC, was happening, the AIDS, 2012. I happened to have a paper presentation there and I was traveling to DC. I met the complete contingent of AHF there in the booth. That is one of the most exciting booth that I have ever seen in my life, in all the conferences that I've met in and I've gone. We were talking about HIV and India.
Dr. Sam:
After my trip there, I was contacted by the AHF country office here to come and assist them with technical assistance, because at that time I was a consultant, I was doing freelance. And then my journey started from there. I joined in there as a consultant, three months later the global team [inaudible 00:02:32] have some interactions. And they said, "Since you are already here, why don't you come and join us?" And then the rest of it is history. So from 2012, I'm here.
Lauren:
Wow. 20 years. Melven what about you?
Dr. Manvedra:
Yeah. So my first introduction to AHF happened when I was invited to launch the Impulse chapter in India in 2013. That time, I think it was not called Impulse. I think it was called Passion or something like that. That's when Terry Ford had come and Dennis was also there. They both had come down to India to be part of that launch. And that's when I met them first time, in New Delhi, and that was just a brief introduction.
Dr. Manvedra:
Then I went back to Mumbai and then in 2014, I was invited in Los Angeles to be given away an award for working for humanitarian programs, and AHF was one of the major sponsors for that event they had booked a whole table in which everyone on the board of AHF was there and I was given that award in Los Angeles. And then, and Michael invited me to come to the office, the AHF office, and he hosted me for lunch, and I met the entire board there, the president, vice president, Terry, of course I had met her last earlier. And I met a lot of people from AHF for that lunch meeting.
Dr. Manvedra:
And Terry had gone to... I'm not sure which countries. There was an International Conference on HIV and AIDS happening in 2015, I think. She had gone, and then on her way back, she had gone down to Mumbai, where also we have a presence of AHF, and she invited me to meet her in the hotel.
Dr. Manvedra:
That's when she proposed to me that, "We are very impressed by the work you have been doing in India and global for largest HIV for LGBT rights, as well, so we would like to invite you to join us and be part of AHF." That's when she decided to appoint me as the ambassador, grand ambassador for AHF and become ambassador consultant for AHF India, India Cares. That was how I got it.
Lauren:
So, Dr. Manvedra, that's a perfect segue. So, can you guys both share a little bit more about your respective roles? So, Manvedra, you already said you're kind of a branded master. Can you touch on that a little bit more and kind of tell us what that entails?
Dr. Manvedra:
Yeah. So my role as an ambassador is to represent AHF in any events, whether it's India or it's out of India globally, as well, and to see how I can fulfill the goals of AHF, that is, how we can work and lobby with the government, with the political parties, with the members of parliament, with the government officers, with other agencies, education institutions, other stakeholders, media, and see that how we can, I can help AHF in fulfilling these goals. And especially now in India, we are working with several states, [inaudible 00:06:19] states, and there's some states in which there are very high prevalence rates are there.
Dr. Manvedra:
So, we're trying to see how we can join hands with the governments. And though I'm not a political person, but still because of my background from being a Royal, from a member of a Royal family, I'm able to get connections with the government pretty easily, especially with the political parties and leaders. And for example, we had meetings with health ministers from different states from the union health minister and many other people, so that just helps me to build up connections and networks.
Lauren:
What about you, Dr. Sam?
Dr. Sam:
Myself, I am currently the CPD, which we call it as a country program director. I oversee the overall operations of the AHF for India Cares. AHF is registered as an trust in the name of India Cares in India, so that's a legal entity. I oversee the activities like the RTP, which is the Rapid Testing Program, which is community based HIV testing free, across the country, partnering with states. We have two free HIV clinics. We call it as a center of excellence clinics, one in Mumbai and one in Delhi, and other partnerships with other agencies, organizations, which are working at the grassroots levels. And we call them as the RTP partners.
Dr. Sam:
Advocacy is a major area for us. We do model advocacy. We bring out models and experiment with them, and then when the results are good, we share it with the governments for them to adopt this model.
Dr. Sam:
So, advocacy is there. And again, AFH events, part of all the events that we do, like the ICD, the International Condom Day, World AIDS Day, the [inaudible 00:08:13] program, all of this. So, role as a country program director is to oversee all the operations in India.
Lauren:
Amazing. So back to you, Dr. Sam, from your purview, how do you think HIV and aids has impacted India specifically?
Dr. Sam:
Well, the very first case was in 1986, when HIV was detected, the very first case was detected. But then ever since the program started, we were late to start the program, and I think scores of people were unfortunate to not receive ART because 2004 only the ART came, the antiretroviral therapy, the treatment for HIV came into this country in the government sector, being free HIV distribution.
Dr. Sam:
There are scores of people who are affected and families affected during that time. But with the advent of 2004 and the advent of ART coming in, things changed here. But with currently the estimate around 2.3 million population in the adult age group, 19 to 49, and with an adult prevalence of 0.22, because it is a big country, huge country, we are a 1+ population. That makes it to 2.3 million people living with HIV.
Dr. Sam:
And these are estimates. So, probably the reality is maybe it's a little more that's what we are experienced from the field says, and we still remain as one of the top three countries with the highest HIV population. Women in this country are disproportionately definitely affected. We have sexual minorities like MSMs, men who have sex with men, transgender [inaudible 00:10:00], injecting drug users, sex workers, and these are the populations that we call as the core groups, and then the bridge populations, which are the long-distant truckers and the migrant population, which are bridging the infection from the core groups into the population. So we are still under threat, or I would say we are still reeling under the pressure of HIV infection.
Lauren:
So, jumping into my next question, what are some creative strategies that the India Bureau uses either to stay relevant or to further engage patients to make sure that we're reaching those targeted demos that really need our services?
Dr. Sam:
[inaudible 00:10:50] definitely would know and would agree to what I'm trying to say here. But I think close to our heart, we have a few programs. We call it as a MOONLIGHT testing and the MOONLIGHT clinic. MOONLIGHT is as an abbreviation for mainstreaming, out of network, laymen, IDUs, gays, [inaudible 00:11:09], and transgenders. So, that is itself is in an explanatory term. So we're trying to mainstream these communities. When I say mainstreaming, why I use the word mainstreaming is because all the government services, all the HIV services come to a close by around 3:00 PM, 4:00 PM or 5:00 PM in the afternoon, depending on where and what the location of the services are. But then we start our MOONLIGHT testing by around 6:30, 7:00, when all these sexual networks are active. I mean, all these, you know, LIGHT, like, the layman, meaning the customers or the clients of this sexual minority communities.
Dr. Sam:
And we see them on the streets, in bushes, probably in lodges or in railway stations or bus stations, etc. And there is a lot of cruising that is happening in and around the city. And that's where we take the testing van, the ambulance, and then with the team of counselors and even sometimes a doctor himself, and then the lab technicians, trained lab technicians going to do the MOONLIGHT testing.
Dr. Sam:
And this has been a very effective model for us, where the current, the officers from NACO, National AIDS Control Organization, also visited us to see the results of the MOONLIGHT testing.
Dr. Sam:
We also supplement that MOONLIGHT testing with our MOONLIGHT clinic, which we call it as... I mean, as a MOONLIGHT clinic, because this is the second shift, the night shift clinic. And we are the only clinic in the whole of India where we have the evening shift for the layman. We operate 'til around 10:00, sometimes 11:00, because until 10:00, this testing is there. If there is anybody who has been positive tested by that time, he needs to be linked on the same day. That's one of our very close to the heart program that we run.
Dr. Sam:
We also had the very first online condom store, free online condom store . In India, condoms are still taboo. I mean, many times, if ladies go into procuring condoms from a store, I think it's going to be a very difficult time for them, or it's going to be stigmatized, and we thought we should be able to remove stigma from the condom access part of it.
Dr. Sam:
And then we instituted something called The Free Online Condom Store. You'll be surprised to see that in around 60 days, we were able to get around a million orders. What we do is we ask them to fill out their address or their convenient addresses... sometimes many people don't want it to be delivered to their homes, but then a convenient address where we can ship it to them. And it's all free. We take out of the [inaudible 00:14:03] charges also. The entire idea is to actually get free access to condoms and thereby preventing HIV and STI infections.
Dr. Sam:
The third is, again, if I may go one more, is ASAP, as we call it. The ASAP is Assisted self-screening and assessment program. So if you know about HIV, now we are talking about 95, 95, 95. We are meaning 95% of people should be tested. 95% of them has to be on ART, and 95% of them has to be having viral load suppression. Now, what happens to the rest of the five? The rest of the five are these what we coined in age of India as the missing risk groups. We have the high risk groups in HIV, but then we are talking about the missing risk groups, which are young population, highly educated, but then at the same time, away from home, having a dispensable time and income, and still having very active sexual lives. This applies more to the gay population or the MTH population, as we call them. That's [inaudible 00:15:04] they're not MSMs. Or the main... men having sex with me. That is what it's called: Assisted Self Screening and Assessment Program.
Dr. Sam:
What we do here is we have the Impulse Buddies, we work through the impulse program, as [inaudible 00:15:20] was saying. We share the flyers, the digital flyers, on social media, on sexual networks, and we sort of reach out to them, asking them whether they would like to do HIV testing, and at their time convenient time and place, Impulse Buddy would go there. And if they're wanting to only have a test kit and they're confident that can do the testing, we give them the test kits. Otherwise we give assistance to do the screening there. And immediately after that, there's a pretest counseling, post test counseling, all of that. And then if there is any positive people, any positive new diagnosis, then the Impulse Buddies link them up to our clinics, the MOONLIGHT clinic, or the daytime clinics. So these three are very close to our hearts, and these are one of the kind models, creative strategies that India Bureau is using to stay relevant in this environment. Thank you.
Lauren:
That was very thorough, Dr. Sam. So, thank you, first and foremost, very informative. Manvedra, I want to bring you back into the conversation because as a brand ambassador in India, are there any other social strategies for community engagement that you'll use? Dr. Sam gave us the full medical background, which was phenomenal, but anything you want to add from a community engagement perspective around engaging our folks?
Dr. Manvedra:
Yeah. About the condom part, I just want to add, I was invited by AHF for the LA fashion week in Los Angeles a few years ago. And I took that opportunity and I actually talked about condoms in the fashion week program, which was very interesting because in a fashion event, nobody talks about condoms. And I talked about even flavored condoms and how we are trying to encourage Indian population to use condoms because, as Dr. Sam said, there's still a lot of stigma towards it. So yeah, definitely, there's a lot of opportunities in India, which one can look into the strategizing. So... but since I'm also working for the LGBT rights and the movement and the advocacy, a lot of strategies are doing through Impulse.
Dr. Manvedra:
Now we have recently we had an event in the southern part of India. That's the city of Bangalore where I happened to be present. We are trying to network with a lot of organizations, a lot of other people, not just necessarily government, but the corporates for that matter, and trying to see how we can involve more and more people so that we can achieve our goals for HIV testing, which is a big issue in India as yet not many people are yet tested and one of the reasons why unless we get them tested that we are not able to know about their status.
Dr. Manvedra:
So I think it's important to involve all stakeholders. And of course we are targeting the high risk behavior population, but as Dr. Sam pointed out, there are other groups also, which need to be looked into and we have to... And India, one of the issues, one of the challenges we are facing is of course population is a challenge. We are highly populated.
Dr. Manvedra:
But we in India, there is another issue, is that there's a huge migration happening. There are several states there are states which are highly under-developed. There are states which are semi-developed. So, because of lack of opportunities that lot of people migrate. And they're mostly the single male migrant population, which travel from one state to the other, looking for job opportunities, and that's when they get infected. That is some areas which we need to strategize.
Dr. Manvedra:
Also, there is a huge road network in India, so, there's lot of truckers population, and this is a very mobile population. So, it's, again, very difficult to work with this population because they are also... a lot of sex is happening, and a lot of times, it's unprotected sex. So many times we have to find out ways and means of how we can address these challenges.
Lauren:
Wow. So, we are pretty much at time. So I've got one more question for both of you. Being that you, Dr. Sam, have been with AHF for 20 years, and Manvedra, it's been almost 10 for you, from your various perspectives, what would you guys say would be your proudest moment for AHF India? And it can be anything. It could be a campaign, it could be starting the MOONLIGHT Clinic, anything. What would be your proudest moment for AHF India?
Dr. Sam:
You Lauren, I think I should correct you. I joined the age of in 2012, so I'm just years.
Lauren:
10 years, 10 years.
Dr. Sam:
Yeah. So, so that, but that is, that's been an incredible journey. I mean, 10 years in that organization. Being part of this large organization across the globe is a great feeling. But to answer your question, I think, what we are doing currently, the MOONLIGHT free online condom store, ASAP, and all that, we are very excited about it. But again, we are coming out with another campaign. I mean, I should probably use this time to talk about that a little bit, just one line. The campaign is named as we are just still experimenting on the lines of how we can operationalize this, but it's called I to We. "I" as in the letter I from the alphabet and "we" as in W-E campaign. This is like if you turn illness, the "I" from the "illness" and put it as W-E, it becomes wellness. So, illness to wellness is the campaign.
Dr. Sam:
So, if you ask me, what are the components, illness to wellness? I to We? But we are targeting to reduce societal stigma and develop family and close-knit, family members support for sexual minorities and PLHA, people living with HIV who are newly identified.
Dr. Sam:
This has been a larger, a bigger challenge for many countries, I would say, within for India particular, because we still have honor killing, and we still have isolating experiences for people who are newly diagnosed as PLHA and people living with HIV and sexual minority. So, I think the support group system has to be developed in India so that we can naturalize neutralize and normalize sexual minority issues and the people living with HIV and their issues. So, that's why we are trying to come out with the I to We campaign. I think it'll be used here about that soon and then possibly it will go well in the country, so, that's what we are most excited about right now.
Lauren:
I love that. Vera. What about you?
Dr. Manvedra:
I think there are so many proud moments for me in being part of AHF that I cannot prioritize on any one, but I would definitely like to say that I'm extremely proud of AHF for taking the initiative for the addressing the drug pricing issues in the pharmaceutical companies. I remember when I was in Amsterdam, we did this protest, march, when I went to attend the International Conference on HIV and AIDS. I felt very proud that I'm part of this team where we need to address these issues.
Dr. Manvedra:
Also, very recently, I think it was last year when, along with the team members of AHF, we did a protest in Mumbai against Pfizer. And I was very happy-
Dr. Sam:
VOW Campaign.
Dr. Manvedra:
Yes. The VOW Campaign. I was able to be part of this campaign and raise these issues and many... it was covered in media. A lot of people approached me after that this happened, and they were quite surprised that how I can... because I've always been seen as an LGBT rights activist, you know? So, this was a new role for me, and I felt very happy that I could participate in this and join hands in that VOW campaign.
Lauren:
Well, I have to say thank you to you both. I think this was so insightful that we were able to really get firsthand feedback about what's happening in our India Bureau. So, thank you guys for taking the time. Dr. Sam, I know you said there's more work to do. You've got to go hit those Mumbai streets right now. So, best of luck to you, and as always, thank you guys for joining. [inaudible 00:24:56].
Lauren:
Thank you so much for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the show, please subscribe, share it with your friends, like, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and review, follow us on Instagram @afterhours and see you next time.