A girl in Thailand wears outfit made of condoms to mark World AIDS Day.

December 2011: Our response to HIV in Asia builds on our organisational strengths and comparative advantages, including the child-centred community development approach, our experiences in poverty reduction and our record in partnering with governments and with international and national non-government and community-based organisations. Here are some of our successes from across the region:

• In India, Plan participated in national HIV policy discussions, including the successful effort to convince the Indian Parliament to pass legislation that ensures the rights of women and children to prevention, care, support and  reatment services. With assistance from DFID, Plan worked in five states to produce a child-friendly HIV awareness package. With funding from The Global Fund, Plan launched a project to strengthen the provision of care, treatment and support services for vulnerable children, including those orphaned because of AIDS-related deaths, in 5 districts in Andhra Pradesh (with 7 partner organisations) and in 2 districts in Maharashtra.

• In Philippines, Plan supported activities that increased the understanding and skills of children, parents, healthcare providers, teachers, guidance counsellors and local policy makers on how to prevent HIV infection and reduce stigma and discrimination through peer education, parental involvement, youth-friendly resource centres and training. Plan also collaborated with the Constellation for AIDS Competence in a 2-year Asian Development Bank-funded project to train non-governmental organisations on developing and managing community-based HIV and AIDS programmes.

• In Thailand, Plan worked with PATH and the Ministry of Education to extend the school-based sexuality education programme, which includes life skills and reproductive and sexual health education for HIV prevention; the pilot project in Si Saket province (involving all 19 secondary schools) was replicated in 14 schools in Chiang Rai province.

• In Asia, Plan published Sexuality education in Asia: Are we delivering?, which presents an assessment from a rights-based perspective of the policies and strategies regarding sexuality education in the 14 countries where Plan works.

Future direction

Plan will build on the experiences of our programmes, including the school-based sexuality education programme, and our efforts to ensure universal access to AIDS treatment for children living with HIV and primary healthcare for those affected by HIV or AIDS. Plan will also continue the training with the Constellation for AIDS Competence and work with other partners to increase the resource commitments for sexual reproductive health education and care and HIV programming for children and young people.

Read more about Plan's vision for tackling HIV/AIDS in Asia.