To implement the GF/FHI National Aligned HIV/AIDS Initiative-NAHI grant, Heartland Alliance Nigeria trained healthcare professionals, PWID community gatekeepers, and program technical officers in October 2022. As part of the training, participants were provided with the necessary onboarding and take-off tools for implementing the program in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, and Lagos States. HALG’s NAHI interventions will advocate for safe use, managed use, abstinence, meeting people who use drugs “where they’re at,” and addressing the conditions of use along with the use itself. Under the NAHI project, HALG’s biopsychosocial interventions for PWIDs and their sexual partners aim to reduce other needle/syringe-related risk behaviours that have the potential for transmission of HIV and other blood-borne infections, increasing the number of safe injection episodes among PWIDs and their sexual partners while ensuring the availability and distribution of other injecting equipment such as alcohol swabs, distilled water, etc. The overarching goal of the meeting will be to provide unified information to key program staff under the NAHI grant on the gap-filling activities.

In November 2022, HALG hosted the Harm Reduction National Technical Working Group (NTWG) members led by Dr Salaudeen on an interactive technical visit with the injecting drug users in the Calabar Municipal One Stop Shop and other selected PWID bunks in Calabar, Cross River State. The purpose of this visit is to provide program support and gain insight into the NAHI Grant implementation. Through the GF/FHI National Aligned HIV/AIDS initiative-NAHI implementation, Heartland Alliance is currently mobilizing PWID communities for Needle and Syringe programming and overdose management with naloxone. This effort is filling critical gaps in support for management of overdose and drug dependency.

#HarmReduction, #InjectSafely, #AvoidOverdose