HIV/AIDS

India's socio-economic status, traditional social problems, cultural misconceptions about sex and sexuality and a huge population of marginalised people make it extremely vulnerable to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In response to the seriousness of AIDS in Karnataka, the organisation is dedicated to research, awareness and capacity building in the area of HIV/AIDS and related issues.

We conduct regular training programmes on HIV/AIDS. These programmes also look into matters such as blood safety, sexually transmitted diseases, sex and sexuality, reproductive health and substance abuse as well as values and life skills so that the approach is holistic. We have also developed a Teacher's Training Manual, which enables teachers to inform and instruct their students on these issues.

Our programmes are made for schools and colleges, industries and slums. They consist of exhibitions, discussions, seminars, street plays and other interactive exercises, and are consistently revisited to determine effectiveness and improve weak spots. The Trust has targeted more than 65,000 school and college students and 30,000 industrial workers since 1993.

We have worked very closely with the State Education Department as well as KSAPS (Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society) to support their efforts too. We conducted the first successful school-level Peer Educators pilot programme in 2004,supported by KSAPS and UNICEF. We have also upscaled this model to cover almost 500 colleges in Bangalore urban and rural districts since 2005, in a 3-year project supported by NSS, Karnataka and TTK-LIG Pvt. Ltd.

BMST is also part of the AIDS Forum Karnataka (AFK), a network of organisations and individuals working in the area of HIV/AIDS. These include SAMRAKSHA, Snehadaan, Madhyam and doctors from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) and Wockhardt Hospital. The forum facilitates interaction and exchange of ideas and methodologies among its members, who come together to conduct programmes, seminars and awareness campaigns to fight the epidemic through public health education.