SINGAPORE, Nov. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Gilead Sciences Inc. today announced the recipients of its 2023 Asia Pacific Rainbow Grant (“Grant”), proudly supporting this year’s World AIDS Day call by UNAIDS for communities to lead on the path to end HIV.
The Grant supports community-led responses to address HIV-related needs with a focus on tackling inequalities and diverse barriers in Asia Pacific to eliminate HIV as a public health threat. Projects supported by the Grant empower underserved communities to overcome obstacles to care and help people living with HIV (PLHIV) lead healthy and enriching lives.
This year, Gilead will be awarding more than US$1.5 million to 40 projects in Asia Pacific. Projects in the 2023 cycle will tackle HIV-related stigma through an integrated and people-centric approach that focuses on addressing HIV-related social determinants of health that impact at-risk populations; integrating mental wellness in HIV care and addressing stigma; and uplifting populations at risk of “being left behind”.
In Singapore, one of the new beneficiaries is The T Project, the country’s first and only social service provider for the transgender network. To improve access to HIV testing and care facilities for this key population, the investment will support the creation of a transgender network. specific sexual fitness guidance, network outreach and normal HIV testing and care facilities. Meanwhile, in mainland China, beneficiary Shanghai Qing’Ai Health Promotion Center seeks to explore art healing as a way to improve mental support and treatment adherence for newly diagnosed people living with HIV. . Artwork created through participants in the initiative will eventually be displayed in a public exhibition, with the goal of fostering greater understanding and an inclusive environment for PHAs.
Since launching the regional grant program in 2018, Gilead Sciences has allocated approximately $6 million to help 144 community-based projects address unmet HIV-related needs across 23 geographies. To commemorate the grant’s fifth anniversary, Gilead is also releasing a report today outlining how funded projects have contributed to progress toward the Joint United Nations Programme’s 95-95-95 targets. This includes helping more than 130,000 people get tested, tested, and counseled.
In a self-reported survey, grantees from the 2018 to 2021 cycles highlighted how grant investment supported their frontline work. This has catalyzed partnerships with more than three hundred key stakeholders, such as healthcare providers, governments, academics, and foreign organizations. By targeting a diverse and developing set of key populations, aggregating youth, women, immigrant populations, and transgender people, the grant also helped address the demanding situations faced by teams disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic in the Asia-Pacific region.
Other key findings highlight the unique needs of communities across different geographies and income levels (as categorized by the World Health Organization):
“HIV is no longer a fatal disease, but stigma and discrimination still hinder the ability for people living with HIV to have health equity and lead quality, healthy lives. Through support from the Gilead Asia Pacific Rainbow Grant, we conducted a systematic review in 2019 to demonstrate how HIV criminalization and mandatory disclosure of HIV status in Taiwan was counterproductive to the national goal of HIV eradication,” said Fletcher Chiu, Communications Director from Persons with HIV/AIDS Right Advocacy Association Taiwan (PRAATW). “This work has been crucial in the collective effort to overturn Article 21[4] and also helped establish Taiwan’s first Undetectable = Untransmissible (U=U) Day in 2023. We look forward to deepening our partnership with Gilead as we work to expand HIV education and access to care in Taiwan.”
“Our community partners are key to expanding access, improving HIV education, and combating stigma and discrimination that can deliver on our vision to ensure access to equitable care for all people living with HIV worldwide,” said Janet Dorling, Senior Vice President, Intercontinental Region & Global Patient Solutions, Gilead Sciences. “This World AIDS Day, we reaffirm our commitment to empowering communities to unleash their full potential in helping end the HIV epidemic for everyone, everywhere.”
About the Gilead Asia Pacific Rainbow Grant
The Gilead Asia Pacific Rainbow Grant program is a corporate giving initiative committed to supporting HIV-related projects that address the challenging situations faced by communities affected by HIV. The Rainbow Grant program aims to empower, engage and shape partnerships and alliances so that other people living with HIV can achieve the most productive quality of life imaginable. Since 2018, around $6 million has been allocated to 144 projects across the Asia-Pacific region. To learn more about the grant program, recipients and their stories, visit https://www. giledrainbowgrant. com.
About Gilead’s Asia Pacific Rainbow Grant Impact Report
The effects of the impact report emerged from a self-reported online survey in which grantees from the 2018 to 2021 cycles were asked to indicate how the grant supported their frontline work and the observed impact on their communities. From March to April 2023, the objective of the survey was to perceive the functionality of the beneficiary projects compared to their established objectives and to monitor the functionality of the grant in its 3 pillar objectives: engage, empower and collaborate. A total of 84 responses were received, representing 17 geographic areas.
About Gilead Sciences
Gilead Sciences, Inc. es a biopharmaceutical company that has been pursuing and achieving breakthroughs in medicine for more than three decades, with the goal of creating a healthier world for all. The company is committed to developing cutting-edge medicines to save and cure your life. -Life-threatening diseases, such as HIV, viral hepatitis, COVID-19, and cancer. Gilead operates in more than 35 countries around the world and is headquartered in Foster City, California. For more information about Gilead Sciences, visit the company’s website at www. gilead. com.
For more information about Gilead Sciences, visit the company’s online page at www. gilead. com, follow Gilead on Twitter (@GileadSciences) or call Gilead Public Affairs at 1-800-GILEAD-5 or 1-650-574-30.
[1] Emerging economies refer to Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan and the Philippines.
[2] Upper-middle income geographies refer to Chinese Mainland, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam.
[3] High-income geographies refer to Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.
[4] Enacted in 2013, Article 21 of Taiwan’s Patient Rights and HIV Control Act makes it a crime for a user who knows to be HIV-positive to engage in “unsafe” sex, percentage of injection kits, blood donation, or organ donation. tissues, structural fluids or cells destined for transplantation without disclosing their HIV status. The law applies regardless of whether HIV is transmitted, and the consequences under this provision range from five to twelve years in prison. (Source: https://www. hivjustice. net/country/tw/)