Journeys: Experiences of Nepalese and Bangladeshi cross border migrants living with HIV

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Enhancing Mobile Population’s Access to HIV and AIDS Information (EMPHASIS), Services and Support is a 5-year project funded by Big Lottery Fund, UK. EMPHASIS is implemented in Nepal, India and Bangladesh to address AIDS related vulnerabilities of cross border populations who are moving between Bangladesh, India and Nepal EMPHASIS is an operations research project and one of the pioneer regional projects to address HIV and AIDS vulnerability among cross border populations. The project aims to address its goals through service provision,
capacity building of relevant partners/stakeholders, and advocacy through generating evidence. As part of generating evidence, EMPHASIS developed a research study to investigate the dynamics associated with accessing services for mobile groups who are already affected by HIV and AIDS. This study examines people and questions that were not covered by the EMPHASIS baseline survey that was previously conducted.

Three separate studies were conducted in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. Bangladesh and Nepal first initiated the study aiming to understand the dynamics of HIV infection among migrant populations and also to assess barriers to accessing services at source. In India the study was initiated later, to assess the barriers to accessing services at destination. The prime objective of the study was to present these barriers to services at the regional level among the regional stakeholders. Sharing the findings at South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) could be an important way to initiate dialogue between the governments of Nepal and India to formalize a cross border referral system. Country specific barriers to services will be provided as evidence to inform policy at the national level. [45 Pages]