Khmer Red Cross showed the business benefits to casinos

The Cambodian Red Cross HIV/AIDS Program has worked though 5 casinos on a range of HIV/AIDS prevention among casino workers in Svay Reing province near the Cambodia-Vietnam border and Phnom Penh Municipality by focusing on risk reduction strategies, increasing access for casinos staff to VCCT/STI and other health services, helping to build a supportive environment to promote HIV/AIDS prevention by engaging establishment management teams and building the capacity of Red Cross staff, casino workers, peer educators and other stakeholders to better plan, implement and mange HIV/AIDS Prevention programs.

We conducted a SALT visit in teams of 3 people to learn from the real situation related to risk behavior among casinos workers though meeting, and interview with casinos manager, and casinos workers. From the meeting and interview we leant that the involvement from casino managers, government, and red cross are important to support and provide good environment for casinos workers to participate in HIV/AIDS activities. From this learning, Cambodian Red Cross HIV/AIDS Program invite casinos management team to participate in sensitizing meeting for sharing experience and make them understand of benefit for business related to HIV prevention.

Now the casinos owner and managers are opening the gate for Red Cross to conduct training of peer educators, arrange time for casinos workers to participate in training, provide good place and refreshment for training, also support of condom promotion in casinos such as put condom box inside of casinos where is clients and casinos workers easy to access. More ever casinos workers get good support transportation and free of charge to access VCCT and STI clinic of health center and NGO's clinic. This is a good success from the story of learning and transferring between Cambodian Red Cross as Humanitarian Organization, non-profit and Casino is a business company to find a profit.

Love is more positive than HIV

A Pakistani man went to work in Middle East. He was earning well there. One day he got sick and went to see a doctor. The next day he was put in jail. He had no idea what was going on. He was told later that he was HIV positive and immediately deported to Pakistan. He was in a lowest point of his life when he came back to Pakistan. He told his wife and she was supportive and encouraged him to lead an active life. Today he is an activist raising awareness on HIV among many people through our NGO.

"Desperate housewives no more"

In Sept 2007, I joined ACP and my life has never been the same since. My boss told me to attend the kick-off event in Manila so that I will learn something related to my new assignment - coordinator for ADB- funded project. I entered the ACP learning event with zero knowledge on HIV and AIDS except for textbook definition of the acronyms In May 2008, I received another assignment - coordinator on women and HIV. Today, I have helped in molding a group of women in two places in the Philippines to be peer educators. One group known as Craftstruck Club of Seamen's Village, launched themselves on World AIDS Day as Women's Circle of Seamen's Village.
They conducted their kick-off seminar called LET's BE SAFE - HIV 1 on 1 for female spouses of seafarers on 1 Dec 2008. They want me to help them propose to shipping agencies that they want to conduct seminars to the wifes of other seafarers. Beyond the project, these ladies want to put to good use the empowerment ADB brought about for them. They are "Desperate housewives no more", but empowered women taking control of their lives, their health and their bedroom.

Sharing the Story of how a million Sri Lankans seized the Opportunity to Give themselves Access to Clean Water and Sanitation

The project was to be demand-driven by beneficiaries, usually the poorest strata in the country, from the very start. Beneficiaries were given responsibility for:  choosing the type of water supply and sanitation technology they wanted and needed to be implemented  communicating the level of service they were willing and able to pay for  assisting in the very planning and design of the project  contributing time and labor and even materials to construct it  taking over the management of the system once the project is completed so there is continuing operation and maintenance to ensure sustainability for their future well-being. The scale of the project was far flung over six districts in central, western, and southern Sri Lanka. The project developed water and sanitation facilities in urban and mainly rural communities covering about 1 million people, of whom nearly 2/5ths live below the poverty line.

Fundamental to the project implementation was to make sure that community-based organizations (CBOs) got involved right from the project planning stage so that they could assume responsibility for the choices they had made. During early consultations, to which all stakeholders and beneficiaries were invited, the CBOs chose the type of water supply schemes and sanitation that suited most their village and based on what they were willing and able to pay for. This was the very step in the communities' empowerment. For most rural households, which had never had proper water supply or sewerage facility, and had to suffer waterborne diseases and high rate of infant mortality and morbidity as a result, this was the first time they could choose what type of facilities they wanted. In making their choices, the CBOs were assisted by technical experts not only from the NGOs but also from the local government and National Water Supply and Drainage Board as to what was technically suitable. The discussions became a learning process for all parties.

The project's success in empowering communities and providing sustainable access to clean water and sanitation facilities has made it a case study of how engaging beneficiaries in join decision making can strengthen development results. ADB has shared its story through many channels, including a video, compilation of participatory projects, participation toolkit, and presentation at various forums within the bank and to external audiences. [See: http://www.adb.org/participation/toolkit-water-sanitation-project.asp http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Ground-Up-Community-Empowerment/default.asp ]