I am delighted to announce that our application to Comic Relief for funding for a new project to support HIV+ women survivors has been successful! We have been awarded a two-year grant for £523,486.

The HIV+ Survivors Integration Project (SIP) will enable two of our principal partner organisations, AVEGA-Agahozo and Solace Ministries, to extend holistic support established through the DFID-funded Care and Treatment Project to ensure the successful integration into the public health system of 1,375 HIV+ women survivors. SIP will also extend access to income-generating activities to 1,626 HIV+ women survivors, and sustain educational support to over 3,000 of their dependents.

As funding to AVEGA and Solace from DFID came to an end in March 2010, the Comic Relief grant comes at a critical time for the partners. For your information, we publish the summary of the proposal here.

Our challenge ahead is to ensure that both AVEGA and Solace have the capacity to independently raise funding and sustain support to their members beyond the project duration. We have two years to achieve this aim, and to do so we are focusing now on strengthening their systems and advocacy.

It is an ambitious plan, but one to which we are committed. We will be certain to keep you posted as to progress through our newsletter and this blog.