The chief executive of UK charity National AIDS Trust has urged PinkPaper.com readers to maintain focus on HIV welfare, following Crusaid's merger with Terrence Higgins Trust, earlier this week.
Talking exclusively to us, Deborah Jack expressed her sadness at seeing Crusaid come to an end after 20 years and voiced her worries for the future.
“My main concern is that we’ve lost a charity solely focused with HIV into an organisation which covers all aspects of sexual health.
“Crusaid always supported those in the greatest need. The important thing now is making sure these people are still given the focus they require.
“Tensions may arise within the merger as Crusaid staff are used to working on more specific issues around HIV. I am, however, pleased THT have made a public commitment to continue the hardship fund which provides a valuable lifeline for those living in poverty with HIV."
The merger aside, Jack's comments also come shortly after Communities Secretary Eric Pickles’ announcement last Thursday that the AIDS Support Grant (ASG) will no longer be ring-fenced. This means that this £25.5 million grant may not necessarily be directed at social care for people living with HIV.
Jack believes it is important to hold local authorities to account for such money, otherwise there could be major repercussions, highlighted in a report the NAT produced with Crusaid which looked at the hardship fund between 2006-2009.
“In the report we found that 1 in 6 people being treated for HIV applied for help from Crusaid with an average income of just £42 per week.
“One of the main problems is that many charities rely on central contracts from central or local government and without the money it might put lots of the smaller charities supporting people on the ground into financial difficulties.
“A lot of charities use the money they get from the ASG to provide counselling and peer support for people living with HIV. If this money isn’t being spent then these services will be cut and then people in the greatest need will not have the same emotional support which may lead to them becoming isolated and depressed.”
Jack hopes to raise awareness of their work among the gay community in the following weeks with the launch of a fundraising drive in the run up to Pride.
She told us: “We want to be very visible at Pride and work with the media to look at how we can ensure we reach the most amount of people we can. The number of gay men living with HIV has grown year on year but a lot of them don’t realise what we are doing.
“We are also trying to put a real focus on regular giving because for us if people give us a regular donation every month that gives us the financial security for the future. We’ve set a target of £25,000 from regular donations, which sounds a lot, but this only requires 200 people to give us £10 a month.
"In turn, it would give us an amount of money which would make a big difference to our work over the next 12 months.”