Targeted prevention
6,512 high-risk migrant workers reached in Karur district in a single year, 4,232 of them kept in regular contact — the clearest annual reach figure anywhere in the trust’s health record.
Disease-specific interventions
HIV prevention among migrant workers, slum outreach during COVID-19, and daily house-to-house work against mosquito-borne disease.
6,512
Migrant workers reached, 2009–10
4,232
Kept in regular contact
23,415
Slum residents covered, COVID-19
110
Domestic Breeding Checkers
Understanding
What disease-specific interventions mean
What are disease-specific interventions?
Disease-specific interventions are targeted health programmes designed to address specific diseases, infections or health conditions through focused prevention, control and treatment strategies.
The trust’s best-documented intervention of this kind is the Targeted Intervention Migrants Project. Delivered in the Karur, Thanthoni, Krishnarayapuram and Kadavur blocks of Karur district with funding support from the AIDS Prevention and Control Project (APAC–VHS), and described in the same report as a project held from TANSACS, it covered migrant workers in brick chambers, textile and dyeing industries, construction work, crushing points and seasonal agriculture. A project co-ordinator, one counsellor and six outreach workers delivered one-to-one and group education, counselling, referral to ICTC centres, STI clinics and ART centres, STI camps at the workplaces, voluntary peer leader promotion and condom promotion. In that year 6,512 high-risk migrant workers were reached and 4,232 of them were in regular contact.
Earlier HIV/AIDS work ran through the trust’s own networks: IEC material disseminated in Dindigul, Madurai, Theni, Karur, Namakkal and Tiruchirappalli; free condoms at strategic points among truckers, female commercial sex workers and other high-risk groups; awareness among school and college students; and a dedicated HIV/AIDS session inside every watershed training programme, with individual cases referred to VCTC and to care and support facilities. During COVID-19 the same method was applied to urban slums, and today it runs daily against mosquito-borne disease in Dindigul.
- Targeted prevention
- Awareness & education
- Screening & testing
- Vector control
- Community response
Why this work matters
The challenge on the ground — and our answer
The challenge
HIV risk concentrates in overlooked groups
Migrant workers in Karur’s brick chambers, textile and dyeing units, construction sites and crushing points are vulnerable to STI and HIV — and are the least reached by mainstream health services.
Our response
A targeted intervention built around them
6,512 high-risk migrant workers reached in 2009–10 and 4,232 kept in regular contact, through one-to-one education, counselling, STI camps at the workplaces, peer leaders and condom promotion.
The challenge
Epidemics hit crowded slums hardest
In dense urban slums, COVID-19 spread fast while the most vulnerable households stayed invisible to the health system.
Our response
Map, identify and coordinate
The Community Intervention Programme covered a slum population of 23,415 in Greater Chennai Corporation Zone 14 — participatory mapping, family profiles, baseline data, interpersonal sessions on prevention, and immediate reporting of infected persons to the referral centre.
The challenge
Mosquitoes breed at the doorstep
Stagnant water in and around homes breeds the mosquitoes that carry dengue and malaria through whole neighbourhoods.
Our response
Find and eliminate breeding grounds
110 Domestic Breeding Checkers inspect houses across Dindigul every day for the Dindigul City Municipal Corporation, destroying breeding sites in coolers, overhead tanks, flower pots, tins and tyres.
The challenge
Stigma keeps people away from care
Where HIV is not talked about, people neither test nor seek treatment — and those living with it are pushed further from the services they need.
Our response
Put the facts in front of whole villages
A separate session on HIV transmission, prevention, treatment and stigma was built into every watershed training programme, with individual cases referred to VCTC and to care and support facilities — and World AIDS Day was marked with a rally and street play for 1,200 people in Karur.
At a glance
The essentials
- Active since
- 2004HIV/AIDS prevention and control is first recorded in the 2004–05 annual report
- Best-documented reach
- 6,512 migrant workersReached in Karur district in 2009–10, of whom 4,232 were in regular contact — the clearest annual figure in the health record
- Named funders & clients
- APAC–VHS, TANSACS, DCMCAPAC–VHS funded the migrants project, which the same report also attributes to TANSACS; the Dindigul City Municipal Corporation runs the Domestic Breeding Checker programme
- Project portfolio
- 5 programmes, 2004–2025HIV/AIDS prevention, the migrants project, World AIDS Day work, COVID-19 slum outreach and vector control
- Currently delivering
- Domestic Breeding Checker programme110 checkers on daily house-to-house inspection in Dindigul. The HIV/AIDS programmes are track record, not current delivery
- Delivery model
- Targeted & community-basedMap the population, educate one to one, refer into the public system, and destroy the source
Track record
Project portfolio
| Programme | Period | Type | Highlights | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIV/AIDS prevention and control | 2004–2010 | Key activity | IEC in Dindigul, Madurai, Theni, Karur, Namakkal and Tiruchirappalli; condom promotion among truckers and other high-risk groups; an HIV session in every watershed training, with referral to VCTC | Completed |
| Targeted Intervention Migrants Project (APAC–VHS) | 2009–2010 | Key activity | 6,512 high-risk migrant workers reached across four blocks of Karur district, 4,232 in regular contact; a Migrants Day event for 1,200 migrants at Manalmedu | Completed |
| World AIDS Day observances | 2008–2018 | Key activity | A rally and street play for 1,200 people in Karur (2008); 500 participants at the Bharath Petroleum campus, Karur (2009); nutrient management knowledge and nutrient kits for 100 people living with HIV (from 2015–16) | Completed |
| COVID-19 Community Intervention Programme (CIP) | 2020–2021 | Key activity | Greater Chennai Corporation Zone 14, Pallavakkam — a slum population of 23,415 covered by a team of 15 outreach workers, a project manager, a field supervisor and a data manager | Completed |
| Domestic Breeding Checker (DBC) programme, Dindigul City Municipal Corporation | 2023–2025 | Municipal programme | 110 checkers on daily house-to-house inspection against dengue, chikungunya and malaria, with health education material distributed to residents | Ongoing |
Impact
What disease-specific interventions change
HIV/AIDS prevention
Awareness, counselling, STI camps at the workplace, voluntary peer leaders and condom promotion for migrant workers — and IEC and condom distribution among truckers and other high-risk groups across six districts.
COVID-19 response
23,415 slum residents in four neighbourhoods of Greater Chennai Corporation Zone 14 covered — mapped, profiled, screened for vulnerability and given prevention sessions, with infected people reported straight to the referral centre.
Vector control
110 Domestic Breeding Checkers inspect Dindigul’s houses daily for the City Municipal Corporation, destroying breeding sites and distributing health education material on dengue, chikungunya and malaria.
Get involved
Support disease prevention
Help us reach the groups mainstream health services miss. Your support funds outreach workers, counselling, workplace camps and the daily house-to-house work that stops disease before it spreads.