Naz Project London
National Lottery Awards - Naz Project London is one of 10 Lottery-funded projects in the Best Health Project category of this year's National Lottery Awards, in association with FemaleFirst.co.uk
Without the social support network, continuity of medical care can be severely compromised. Ultimately, this means people are even more vulnerable
Coping with being HIV positive is difficult for anyone. But many members of black and ethnic minority (BME) groups face even greater challenges due to particularly high levels of social stigma surrounding sexual issues.
Naz Project London (NPL) provides support to help people overcome these challenges and live independently, and works to raise awareness about sexual health issues, particularly among young people.
Lottery support has been vital in enabling NPL to create specific services in London to support HIV positive people and their families from target communities. The Lottery funding has allowed the project to increase the number of referrals it can take on from health and social services, as well as funding workshops in self-management and leadership.
The Lottery funding has also been used to produce a video introducing NPL to new users, and to carry out research among young people from BME communities about their sexual health. This involved a survey of 3,000 young Londoners, which produced a report that has been used by other organisations, including the Department of Health. The research also led to NPL developing a programme to train 50 BME school students as sexual health peer educators, who have now reached out to more than 1,000 young people.
"Simply giving people medication isn’t enough," says chief executive Bryan Teixeira. "Without the social support network, continuity of medical care can be severely compromised. Ultimately, this means people are even more vulnerable." NPL’s self-management training sessions address both physical and emotional issues, giving people advice on how to cope with side effects of medication, maintain a balanced diet and deal with social stigma and the psychological impact of HIV.
Leadership training gives people the skills to become community ambassadors and support others, with many going on to run sessions for new users of the service. "We’re helping people to speak out for themselves," says Bryan.
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