Gilead Asia Pacific Rainbow Grant

We’re supporting HIV/AIDS patient-centric projects in Asia Pacific

We’re eager to support projects that place patients and their communities at the heart of care. To that end, we launched the Asia Pacific Rainbow Grant in 2018, and to date it has granted awards to almost 70 projects from around the region. In 2021, we are focusing on ending the HIV epidemic. Although global attention has been dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, HIV remains one of the world’s major public health challenges, and we believe that decades of experience from the HIV/AIDS epidemic offers valuable resources for fighting COVID-19 and vice versa. The myriad of innovation – from online training for antiretroviral therapy prescribers to home deliveries of medicines to digital platforms for patient support – offers new and exciting prospects for improving access to HIV prevention and treatment services, for vulnerable communities in Asia Pacific. If we are to achieve the overarching goal of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030, it is critical that we build upon the knowledge and tools gained from fighting current and past disease outbreaks. With an eye toward ending the epidemic, there are three types of projects that we hope to support.

Focus 1: Education and Literacy

We cannot tackle the HIV pandemic without renewed efforts to educate people on how to prevent infection and to eliminate the culture of silence surrounding the disease. We must prioritize long-term changes that protect us from future crisis. This means encouraging voluntary testing and creating a culture of openness and acceptance. Organizations and eligible proposals may include:

• Education campaigns calling for greater urgency for the prevention of HIV and rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy and knowledge of U=U (Undetectable Equals Untransmittable)
• Resources to help persons behaviorally vulnerable to HIV access voluntary testing and counselling

Focus 2: Reducing Health Disparities

Improving livelihood opportunities and tackling the stigma around employing these people are critical to prevention efforts and better health outcomes. Organizations and eligible programs may include those with initiatives or campaigns that raise awareness about HIV stigma and economic inclusion of transgender, PLWH, sex workers and people who inject drugs etc., for example:

• Professional and corporate training sessions that raise awareness of HIV/STI related issues
• Economic empowerment sessions and workshops for vulnerable communities
• Life skills training programs or capacity-building programs for vulnerable populations

Focus 3: Research for Impact

Up-to-date and accurate data are critical to empowering practitioners, policymakers and donors with the knowledge to design and fund interventions that will materially improve outcomes for PLWH. Eligible organizations may include those using robust existing data, or generating new data, in order to drive evidence-based advocacy in favor of the development of HIV programs, for example:

• Programs that target the use and understanding of patient-reported outcomes to support the well-being and quality of care of PLWH and persons-at-risk
• Data analyses
• Research papers to help organizations measure impact of their programmatic work