Saksham, Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Locations: Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

Sponsor: Global Fund for AIDS TB and Malaria

 

Saksham (which means “making capable”) is a project of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences funded by the Global Fund since 2008 to support the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in its fight against HIV and TB. The Saksham project focuses on supporting and strengthening national response for both HIV and TB.

Saksham in partnership with the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) has developed the curriculum for HIV Counsellors across India and has partnered with the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) to provide counselling and psycho social support for People living with Drug Resistant TB in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan.  Currently Saksham has 2 major grants in the area of TB counselling, community engagement and HIV evaluations.

Saksham Pravaah

Saksham Pravaah is the TB vertical of Saksham that introduced psycho-social counselling for TB in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and has demonstrated the need for addressing social determinants of TB. Under the project, 214 Professional Counsellors (Masters in Social Work/Sociology/Psychology) were integrated within the NTEP.

From programme initiation in October 2015 until Dec. 2022, Saksham Pravaah has provided counselling and psycho –social support to over 95,000 People living with Drug Resistant (DR) TB and their caregivers.

The Counsellors provide ongoing home-based counselling and address a range of issues including TB related Stigma and Discrimination, Gender based concerns and Mental Health.  In order to reduce the catastrophic burden of TB, the Counsellors link people living with TB to the available Government of India Social Protection Scheme and Nutrition Support.

In the third phase of implementation (April 2021 – March 2024), Saksham Pravaah will create a pool of National Master Trainers to build capacities of front-line TB staff on Counselling soft skills.

Saksham Jan Urja

In collaboration with the Mumbai District TB Control Society, Saksham also undertook an initiative to meaningfully and gainfully engage TB survivors under the project titled ‘Saksham Jan Urja’.   The project was funded by Tata Power Development Trust and was initiated in January 2020. In August 2021 the project was integrated under the GFATM grant for the period April 2021-March 2024. The survivors are termed “Saksham (Against TB) Saathi” and undertake telephone counselling to address stigma, presenting a positive picture of TB treatment, debunking the myths around TB and emphasize the importance of treatment adherence. The model integrated within the NTEP from November 2021 in Mumbai and 24 Saksham Saathis are placed within the TB Centres in Mumbai.

Saksham Pramaan

Saksham has been awarded a project by the NACO for undertaking programmatic as well as Targeted Intervention (TI) and Link Workers Schemes (LWS) evaluation under NACP across India. The project is named “Saksham Pramaan” and the project duration is April 1, 2021- March31, 2024.

Under this project, approximately 1600 TI/LWS will be evaluated and three major, nine minor programmatic evaluation research studies will be conducted.

 

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