In February 2005, the USG in Honduras awarded its first set of grants through USAID to ten local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working with 43 Honduran communities most affected by HIV/AIDS. In their first seven months of implementation, the organizations reached over 27,000 at-risk individuals with behavior change modules. As part of their HIV prevention efforts, the groups began offering HIV counseling and testing. The counseling and testing programs were the first in Honduras to be offered by NGOs trained in accordance with Ministry of Health standards as part of the larger national HIV/AIDS prevention effort. The collaboration between the indigenous groups and the Ministry of Health set the standard for expanding access to testing in Honduras through the civil society sector.
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