Access to HIV Services for Mobile and Migrant Populations in Antigua

AIDS Secretariat/NAP office
Redcliffe Street
This office is directly responsible for the national AIDS program. The office is headed by
Delcora Williams and employs a number of educators, counselors and support staff. The
office is located on Redcliffe Street in the heart of St. John’s and is easily accessible. The
Services offered include HIV counselling and testing, HIV prevention education,
distribution of condoms and referral for support. The agency’s target population is the
general public, but sometimes special outreach programs are organized for youth,
women, out of school youth and most at risk populations which includes migrants, sex
workers and men who have sex with men. Services are free and not offered based on the
client’s ability to pay. Persons are not asked their immigration status and in testing cases,
names are not required.
The staff at the AIDS Secretariat is trained in how to work with vulnerable populations;
for example, women, youth and children, migrants, commercial sex workers, men who
have sex with men, unemployed, etc., and all staff are required to be confidential. Only
one staff member is trained specifically in diversity and Cultural competence, which was
a part of her Master’s Degree in Social Sciences.
As it relates to HIV testing, counseling is offered before and after testing and if tested
positive, persons are referred to the Clinical Care Coordinator for medication and to 3H
for support. The office sees approximately 40 to 50 new persons monthly with 5 to 10
of them (10 to 20%) being migrants. While conducting outreach in the community in
the form of street fairs or mobile testing, they make contact with other persons
distributing condoms items.
The AIDS Secretariat keeps a suggestion box to keep track of client perception of their
services. Via this method, they have been able to find out that while the majority of their
clients are happy with their services, there have been complaints/suggestions which
included the following:
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