ViiV MSM Trans
Photo: ViiV Healthcare’s Positive Action for MSM and Transgender program

 ViiV Healthcare awarded 23 small grants to support programs at nongovernmental and community-based groups that alleviate discrimination and HIV-related stigma among men who have sex with men (MSM) and the transgender population.

According to a ViiV press release, each organization will receive up to $38,400 over a two-year period (the U.S. equivalent of 25,000 British pounds). The grantees run programs located in at total of 38 countries across the world.

The awards are part of ViiV Healthcare’s Positive Action for MSM and Transgender global initiative, which was launched in March 2015 to fight HIV/AIDS among these populations, to help empower them to seek better health care and to enhance organizations and programs that work with MSM and transgender people.

This is an important group to reach because, as the ViiV press release states, “the World Bank estimates that fewer than one in 10 MSM and transgender individuals worldwide has access to the most basic package of preventive interventions. Prevalence rates among MSM and transgender populations are consistently higher than for men of reproductive age in the general population wherever MSM have been studied; and scant data on transgender individuals reveals transgender women are 48.8 times more likely to be infected with HIV than the general population.”

For this round of grants, ViiV received 237 applications from 79 countries.

“We can attribute the overwhelming number of applications received as part of our first small grants request for proposal to the enormous need to help reduce societal pressures, such as stigma and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, that people living with HIV face,” said Michael N. Joyner, director of Positive Action and Patient Advocacy at ViiV Healthcare, in the press release. “Through the Positive Action for MSM and Transgender program, we hope to address the impact of the HIV epidemic in this underserved population.”