Success Stories

Saturday night out in Hanoi

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Vu Bao Huy facilitates a discussion on sexually transmitted infections in Hanoi.

This Saturday evening, Vu Bao Huy rushes home to get ready for a small-group communication session that he leads with young men who have sex with men. Recent figures suggest 17 percent of Hanoi's men who have sex with men are HIV-positive, and 90 percent of these are unaware they carry the disease -- yet they remain underserved by national programs. To fill the gap, USAID supports a Hanoi nongovernmental organization called VICOMC to train peer educators like Huy, with PEPFAR funding and technical assistance from implementing partner Pact.

Youth carry on the message of HIV: Street youth are committed to spreading Project NAM’s messages, long after the project is over

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*Huynh Thi Nhu, a Project NAM Peer Educator, and other street youth meet.

It's nighttime on a humid December evening in Phu Lam Park, Ho Chi Minh City. Nineteen-year-old Huynh Thi Nhu,* a former Project NAM Peer Educator who lives on the streets, tirelessly walks along the paths of the park, speaking with every street youth she meets about HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. Project NAM may have ended, but she knows that her work is far from over.

Hai Phong Takes Lead to Secure Methadone Treatment Sustainability

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Then Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong visits co-pay clinic.

In a tangible step by Vietnamese authorities to assume a larger portion of USAID/PEPFAR and other donor supported HIV programs, the Hai Phong Financial Department in September 2011 approved funding to cover half of the running costs for methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) clinics in the city from 2012 onwards.

With donor support for HIV programs decreasing, Hai Phong itself is looking for new ways to finance this critical prevention activity. This model of cost sharing between the local health departments, and USAID under PEPFAR, will chart a path to a more sustainable treatment approach. It marks the Government's recognition for the importance of MMT treatment in Vietnam and is evidence of the success of advocacy efforts made by Hai Phong and Ministry of Health officials with USAID and UNAIDS.

Street safe in Cambodia: USAID/Vietnam Supports Vietnamese SMARTgirls

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Cambodian and Vietnamese SMARTgirls work to fight the spread of HIV.

It's evening in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Le Thi Thu Thao, a single 22-year-old woman originally from Hung Yen, Vietnam, has just started her shift. Before the night is over, she will have served beer to numerous customers, sang many songs, and had sex with one, two or more men. It's a typical working night. But Thao is not a typical entertainment worker. She's a SMARTgirl.

A fresh look at stigma and sex work: A new anti-stigma toolkit gets Vietnam officials to open up about their thoughts on sex workers

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Workshop participant Nguyen Tuong Long.

Thirty dark-suited cadres from police departments, AIDS committees and rehabilitation centers across Vietnam crowd in to see a poster on the conference room wall. The Institute for Social Development Studies (ISDS), a Vietnamese NGO, is testing its new toolkit to counter stigma against sex workers. The participants candidly debate the cartoon on the poster, which depicts a sex worker in a hotel bed, surprised as her client is joined by other beer-toting friends. Some argue the young men have a responsibility to respect her well-being; others that they should get what they pay for.

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