*EPF412 07/15/2004
Fact Sheet: U.S. Provides Small Business Loans to People with AIDS
(Positive Partnership Program aims to reduce "stigmatization") (1060)

A new U.S.-led initiative aims to reduce the "stigmatization" of people living with HIV/AIDS by associating HIV-positive people with successful businesses and encouraging cooperation between those with the disease and others in the community.

Dubbed "Positive Partnership," the program promotes economic development by encouraging entrepreneurship, especially among those recovering from the disease who might otherwise have trouble finding employment.

The program gives small loans to teams of two people, one an HIV-positive person, the other an HIV-negative person. The teams then develop their own business plans, but they are provided with career training, technical assistance and oversight.

In Bangkok, Thailand, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Randall Tobias and Assistant Administrator for Global Health E. Anne Peterson of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) visited a locally run AIDS project to distribute loans under the new program. Their July 13 visit came on the sidelines of the XV International AIDS Conference.

The program is funded by USAID and is a joint collaboration between the Bangkok's Mercy Centre and Family Health International, a nongovernmental organization that is a U.S. partner in AIDS programs.

Following is a fact sheet on the Positive Partnership program from the U.S. Embassy Bangkok:

(begin fact sheet)

Fact Sheet: Positive Partnership

Positive Partnership is a joint program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Mercy Centre, the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), and Family Health International (FHI).

The rationale for the Positive Partnership program is twofold:

(1) to reduce the stigmatization of people living with HIV/ AIDS by associating HIV-positive people with successful businesses and encouraging cooperation between those with the disease and others in the community

(2) to promote economic development by encouraging entrepreneurship, especially among those recovering from the disease who might otherwise have trouble finding employment.

Background

In May 2004, USAID began funding of Positive Partnership, a program that gives small loans to teams of two people, consisting of one HIV-positive person and one HIV-negative person. The program is a joint collaboration between the Mercy Centre, PDA and FHI. Mercy Centre selects the participants and regularly conducts home visits to examine the status of their health. PDA provides career training to the participants, manages the finances, and distributes information about HIV/ AIDS. Finally, FHI provides technical, oversight and financial assistance for the project.

PDA runs other similar programs in Thailand, but with the assistance of USAID, this is a unique opportunity for PDA to partner with Mercy Centre and run an HIV/AIDS assistance program in depressed areas of Bangkok, which face both a high rate of AIDS and unemployment.

The program provides loans that range from 3,000 THB to 12,000 THB (about 75 USD to 300 USD). Participants are required to pay back the money according to payment plans uniquely designed for each couple and at an interest rate of 5%. After receiving these loans, participants develop their own business plans - typically some type of handicraft or food business. Others have invested in a sewing machine or raw materials.

The first five loans were distributed on June 1, 2004 and an additional five loans were announced during Ambassador Tobias' visit to the Mercy Centre on Tuesday, July 13, 2004.

Partners

The Mercy Centre

The Mercy Centre is the home of The Human Development Foundation, which serves over 30 slum communities in Bangkok with a staff of 295. Its current director, Father Joe Maier, and Sister Maria Chantavarodom, founded the Human Development Foundation in 1974. Father Joe Maier, a Redemptorist Priest, operates the Human Development Foundation/ Mercy Centre as a nondenominational organization. The children in the foundation's care are raised in their native religions and taught to respect all religions.

The Centre includes four orphanages, a shelter for street children, a home for mothers and children with HIV/AIDS, an adult AIDS hospice, a kindergarten for neighborhood children as well as the administrative offices of the foundation's community work. The foundation directly cares for over 200 children, aged 3 to 18, who live in orphanages in and around Mercy Centre. There are 48 children with AIDS that live at the Mercy Centre, and they attend school and participate in activities with other children, as they are willing and able.

The Mercy Centre also manages the largest free AIDS hospice and homecare system in Bangkok, reaching over 300 patients and their families every year, about half of whom eventually return home to their families. Moreover, the center provides a number of AIDS-center community outreach programs, including an education program in factories, schools, and youth detention centers that reaches approximately 10,000 high-risk individuals per year.

The Population and Community Development Association (PDA)
PDA was founded in 1974 and is based in Bangkok but operates 16 regional development centers and branch offices around Thailand. Senator Mechai Viravaidya, its chairman and founder, played a central role in formulating Thailand's AIDS policy in the late 1980s and early 1990s. PDA has traditionally endorsed family planning in rural areas to promote economic development, but naturally evolved into an AIDS advocacy organization with the arrival of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. Many of PDA's projects are market-based solutions to poverty as developing the private sector is the route to community development. PDA runs other programs that are similar to the Positive Partnership program, including loan programs for people in rural areas and for women that are living with AIDS.

Family Health International (FHI)

FHI is a U.S.-based, non-profit organization working to improve lives through a program of research, education, and services in family health and HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support in 75 countries worldwide. In Thailand, FHI supports a number of programs, including the Positive Partnership program; behavior change interventions among the uniformed services; HIV prevention and support in the Akha hill tribes; a home care project in Bangkok slum communities implemented by the Mercy Centre; HIV prevention and prevention of mother-to-child transmission for Burmese migrants in Mae Sot; and HIV prevention among high-risk men and prison populations. The FHI Thailand program also serves as a regional learning site for other countries in the region and plans to share experiences from the Positive Partnership program with other countries.

(end fact sheet)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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