Project title: Prevention of HIV/AIDS programme for newly recruited police personnel in Nepal through advocacy

Implementing body: Family Planning Association of Nepal (FPAN)

Aim: To build awareness and positive behaviour change among vulnerable police recruits

Enclosed by the vast ranges of the Himalayas, Nepal is one of the most impoverished nations of South Asia. Since the first case was reported in 1988, HIV/AIDS has spread across the mountain kingdom from the confines of vulnerable groups to the broader community.

Unprotected sex and the urban migration of youth are the two key factors in the spread of HIV/AIDS in Nepal. The extreme risks taken by some groups could stimulate a drastic escalation of the epidemic.

Although the overall HIV prevalence rate is still relatively low, by 2005 it is estimated that around 20 per cent of adult deaths in the 15–49 age group will be AIDS-related.

Some vulnerable groups already have very high rates of infection. Among injecting drug users in Kathmandu the HIV prevalence rate is close to 70 per cent.