Harm reduction and street-based program: looking into Nepal

In August 1991 the Lifesaving and Lifegiving Society (LALS) became the first nongovernmental organization in Nepal to work with injecting drug users (IDUs) to reduce the harm caused by drugs in order to prevent HIV/AIDS. Its mission is to provide education, counseling, and primary health care, as well as bleach, sterile water, condoms, and new needles and syringes to IDUs to lower their risk of acquiring blood-borne diseases. An evaluation of the program found that the prevalence of HIV infection among IDUs who were in regular contact with the program from 1991 to 1994 was 1.6%. No new cases of HIV infection were detected among participants in either 1993 or 1994. Though a harm reduction program is expensive to implement and sustain in Nepal, through its nonjudgmental, noncoercive, and confidential philosophy, LALS has engaged drug users into recovery and given them a platform by which they are able to address their concerns in a public forum.