The journey starts at the grassroots – the birth and growth of organized community based groups formed by people living with HIV/AIDS. In Nepal, there is about 100 such groups registered with the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nepal, 18 of which having been formed with support from the Global Fund, in partnership with UNDP.

Many community organizations are led and formed by HIV positive women who are among the poorest of the poor in Nepal. One such example is the Suryodaya Women’s Empowerment Group, an association of AIDS widows who provide care and support among each other and to others in Doti District, western Nepal. Learn more about how they have taken the courageous step of “coming out” in their communities.

Those Nepalese grassroots organizations have at least one thing in common: what is feared elsewhere as the dreaded killer HIV/AIDS has been transformed by them into a life changing opportunity.

Community group leaders face the major challenge of getting people who may have the disease to go for counseling and testing and then to follow up the process depending on the result. Yet they are also the most effective at encouraging and providing support to newly diagnosed HIV positive people as they have been through the challenge and fear themselves.