$2m targets HIV in Mozambique’s LGBT communities

Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran living in Southern…

Mobile clinic in Mozambique (Photo courtesy of RealMedicineFoundation.org)

Location of Mozambique in southeast Africa.

A coalition of anti-AIDS organizations is offering $2 million to combat HIV in the LGBT communities of Mozambique, where stigma against sexual minorities often excludes them from health care.

Mozambique repealed its anti-LGBT law last year, but still suffers from intense homophobia.

Stigma complicates efforts to combat AIDS. The country’s HIV rate of 11.5 percent is among the top 10 in the world. Among men who have sex with men in Maputo, the capital, the HIV rate exceeds 33 percent.

In an announcement, The LGBT Fund said the $2 million Deep Engagement Grant would be awarded for a Mozambique-based effort:

To improve access to HIV and STI prevention, care and treatment services and information for LGBT persons;
To decrease LGBT-related stigma and discrimination among health and other service providers, community and/or faith-based leaders, families and policy makers; and
To increase the capacity of LGBT community-based civil society organizations and local- and national-level LGBT movements to deliver HIV and STI services and advocate for the rights and health of LGBT persons.

The application deadline is Jan. 31, 2017.

A conference call for prospective applicants will be held on Monday, Jan. 23. For more details, see the brief article “Mozambicans, here’s how to get $2m to fight AIDS.”

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Partners in The LGBT Fund are the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), and The United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).