Supporting civil society

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s HIV had spread most rapidly throughout East and Southern Africa leading to unprecedented health, social and economic consequences and heart-breaking suffering of millions of people.

With its acute understanding of the growing complexity of the HIV response, Avert established granting and technical support partnerships with organisations where it felt it could add most value and where the need was greatest.

Avert used its own unrestricted funds to support this work, starting off with relatively small grants that could be administered quickly and with minimal demands put on the partners.

Avert often stepped in and funded the pieces of work other donors were not able to, or that had emerged later in a programme’s cycle.

Through our great partnership with Avert, availability and accessibility of the much needed HIV treatment to thousands of people living with HIV have significantly and sustainably improved.

In 2000 Avert made its first grant to support an organisation called ‘Mothers to Mothers to Be’, who provided support and education services to pregnant women living with HIV in Cape Town, South Africa. This small clinic-attached CSO went on to become the hugely successful and impactful regional African organisation Mothers2Mothers.

Sisonke

The Sisonke project supported grandmothers of orphaned children across 20 rural communities through a range of training, economic strengthening activities, nutritional support and very practical support with school fees, transportation and paralegal support to address land and inheritance disputes.

Phelisanang Bophelong

Avert’s funding to Phelisanang Bophelong in Lesotho supported activities raising HIV awareness among young people, increasing testing rates, supporting LGBT and prison groups, and establishing a training programme to break down prejudice within the police force.

Umunthu

Avert’s support to Umunthu in Malawi enabled it to grow its work across HIV prevention, care, treatment and gender equality, establishing its own accredited HIV testing and treatment clinic. Umunthu supported over 14,200 people to access HIV treatment, provided HIV testing to 19,000 people, and supported 20,000 HIV positive pregnant women to receive prevention of mother to child transmission services.

Achievements


civil society organisations supported with over £2 million in funding (2009-19): Over 25

people supported to get tested and access HIV services if needed: Over 210,000

young people engaged in community-based HIV prevention activities: Over 36,000

Photo credit: Nicola Barrett/Avert. Photos are used for illustrative purposes. They do not imply health status or behaviour.