Launch of Hotline - Actress Shabana Azmi

The AIDS helpline and telephone counseling service was established in 1998. It is an automated system that provides information about HIV/AIDS in two languages - English and Kannada. It was inaugurated by noted actress Shabana Azmi. It has a toll free number 1097. From the date of inception in 1998 this help line has received a total of 3, 87,175 calls. The AIDS helpline and tele counseling service was established in 1998. It is an automated system that provides information about HIV/AIDS in two languages - English and Kannada. It was inaugurated by noted actress Shabana Azmi. About 30-50 calls are received per day. In addition, there is facility for anonymous counseling in the automated system and direct telephone counseling on another landline. The manual telephone counseling was started in 2000 and about 8-10 calls are received per day.

The manual telephone counseling was started in 2000 and about 8-10 calls are received per day. There are two lines - 23543333 and 23542222 functional through the week from Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. Since inception the total number of calls that we have received is 10,395 calls. ASHA Foundation also receives queries on HIV/AIDS by email. The E-mail ID is ashafblr@yahoo.co.in.

Another development in this project is the partnership with a volunteer group called i-volunteers. Most of these volunteers are young people from the IT industry who want to serve and give back to the society. They have been trained in HIV/AIDS awareness and reach out to people to spread the awareness through power point presentations, street plays and personal testimonies from HIV positive people.