Prayas means “an attempt”. It was one of the first efforts in India to make sure transgender and hijra communities knew about PrEP, a daily medicine that helps prevent HIV.

The project ran in six states with six community partners, and Basera led the work in Delhi. Our role was to give people clear and correct information about PrEP, so that they could make their own choices about HIV prevention. Together we:

Shared information about what PrEP is, how it works and who it is for, through community events, group meetings and one-to-one conversations
Trained PrEP Champions: 12 community members across the six states who kept passing this information on to others
Built evidence through a study that recorded, for the first time, what transgender women, doctors and other stakeholders in India thought about PrEP
Spoke up for PrEP to be included in India’s HIV prevention programme, in line with WHO recommendations

Prayas helped our community understand HIV prevention better and gave them the knowledge to ask the right questions.