Grants of up to PLN 30 000 can be won for projects related to HIV prevention and education.
Warsaw, 5 April 2023: The just-launched 13th edition of the Positively Open competition is an opportunity for non-governmental organisations, local governments and public health care centres to submit projects on HIV/AIDS. The competition jury will select the most interesting, and their creators will receive up to 30 thousand zlotys to implement their ideas. The funder of the grants is the company Gilead Sciences Poland, which since 2011 has allocated a total of almost two and a half million PLN for this purpose.
This year's competition themes are:
- HIV, HCV and syphilis prevention carried out in urban spaces, clubs and at mass events.
- Promotion of HIV testing among people who have never been tested.
- Actions to reduce the stigma of HIV+ people implemented by promoting awareness of the N=N principle and raising awareness in the community that, thanks to modern therapies, HIV is now one of many chronic diseases.
- Promotion of knowledge on HIV prevention and/or living well with the virus carried out online through the creation of apps, games, role-plays etc. with a particular focus on the effective promotion of these tools on social media.
- Educational activities targeting families with HIV-positive children, carried out with the aim of providing adequate support to both parents and seropositive children, as well as preparing young seropositive people to enter adulthood.
The competition organising office is accepting entries until 30 June at the following e-mail address biuro@pozytywnieotwarci.pl. All details, including the rules and application form, are available at Positively Open.
"NIZP-PZH-PIB notes a continuous increase in the number of newly detected HIV infections. Let's hope this also means that there are fewer and fewer people in our country who do not know about their infection and do not receive treatment. Thanks to modern drugs, HIV can now be effectively kept in check, but in order to be treated, one needs to know about the infection. That is why I am proud that since the beginning of the Positively Open competition we have already supported more than 120 projects spreading information about this virus. I believe that for many organisations fighting the HIV epidemic, the 13th edition of our competition will turn out to be a happy one. I wish you all the best," said Paweł Mierzejewski of Gilead Sciences, coordinator of the Positively Open programme.