Dear All,

Re: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS-INDIA/message/10346

First of all kudos to Anjali for bringing in some rational perspective to this
rather insidious debate on weather Bill Gates
blew up 258 million USD in India through "Avahan"

I agree with Anjali wherein she points out that rather than critique the
program, the debate has become a bit personal.

As the various credible reports and publications indicate, it its own selective
sense Avahan has had some impact and cannot be discounted as a TOTAL failure or
as debated USD 258 million down the drain ! where "Avahan" missed the bus was
its disconnect with ground realities and foresight to programmatically link
prevention to care, support and treatment as a continuum.

I do hope as it happens with ALL program initiatives that this critique is seen
as a learning curve and appropriate measures are incorporated and the Avahan
project is re strategized to address the learnings and gaps.

As pointed out by Anjali we have had far too many instances of highly impact
interventions that are non existent today or the impact negated totally due to
envisaging the magical principal of handing over to communities or governments.

Some of us have had the courage and foresight to venture into care and support
(1994) as an entry point to then link Prevention Care, and treatment, experience
does show us that this has also had an impact to de stigmatize and provide hope
for a better quality of life, and gone a long way in bringing in some
rationality in normalizing the disease.

On a slightly different count, I am a bit disappointed on the debate going on
about the kind of salaries of the employees of the Avahan project. While I do
not want to comment on the same without knowing the facts, we must understand
that in today's world qualified and technically sound professionals do not come
cheap. rather than question the salaries of personnel of projects like Avahan,
we need to question our governments,and donors on the relatively low salary
budgets for the similar kind of personnel. It must be understood that NGOs are
evaluated with the same yardstick to measure performance and impact for
programs.

Best Regards

Dr.Ashok Rau

Executive Trustee/CEO
Freedom Foundation-India, Nigeria, and Botswana
(Centers of Excellence- Substance Abuse & HIV/AIDS)
Head Office: 180, Hennur Cross, Bangalore - 560043, India

Phone (O) +91 80 25440134, 25449766, 25430611, (Direct) 25443114
Fax (O) +91 80 25440134
email:freedom@...