The OSI International Harm Reduction Development Program announces a new grant program to support innovative harm reduction services for women in Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine. Programs selected for grants will receive technical training and ongoing support, and will ideally become model services that can be reproduced elsewhere. To this end, IHRD will ask grantees to document their work, collect data on their results, and, eventually, host visits from others interested in developing similar projects. Program results will be incorporated into national and international advocacy to increase women’s access to harm reduction, drug treatment, and sexual and reproductive health services.

Three grants are available for Ukraine, two for Russia, and one for Georgia. While proposals will vary based on setting, priority will be given to those that include (but are not necessarily limited to) one or more of the following services:

• Sexual and reproductive health services aimed at women
• Evidence-based counseling on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, drug treatment for women, and drug use during pregnancy
• Needle exchange for women who are uncomfortable appearing at a harm reduction center—e.g., home delivery of needles, or secondary exchange
• Rape and domestic violence crisis services or support
• Events to attract women to services (e.g. support groups, play groups, “women’s zone” in center, distribution of women’s hygiene products along with syringes)
• Partnership with AIDS Center, drug treatment clinic, maternity clinic, gynecologists and obstetricians, and other services, to ensure women’s access to non-discriminatory care

For more background information and for recommendations on designing services for women, please read IHRD’s report Women, Harm Reduction, and HIV, (available in English and Russian).

To Submit a Letter of Intent

Please see the attached guidelines below.

Deadline

November 20, 2007.