ASIA CATALYST INC

Myanmar Human Rights Documentation and Advocacy Program:In light of COVID-19 restrictions and a coup dett in February 2021, Asia Catalyst staff prioritized personal security and, once able, provided humanitarian aid to partner groups, maintaining ongoing support throughout 2021 to the extent possible, when internet was available and it was deemed safe, using extreme precautions and secure means. Programs with our cohort groups (Kachin Positive Womens Network, Lotus, Youth Star, and SWiM) were wound down, having completed most training workshops online when possible, and providing technical and proposal writing support when requested.Grassroots Empowerment in Southeast Asia:Asia Catalyst was able to support the activities of HIV, youth, LGBTQI, migrant, and sex work groups, such as APCOM, MAP, and EMPOWER Foundation, to address urgent COVID needs among these highly vulnerable and marginalized communities. In addition, these groups worked on decriminalization and empowerment at the grassroots, and supported Asia Catalysts health and human rights hub by giving interviews by their leaders for archiving on the site. In addition, we supported a leading HIV and LGBTQI group, Lighthouse Social Enterprise, in Vietnam for its community-building and COVID resilience work. In addition, pro-democracy activists seeking asylum in the US were supported, as were leading Myanmar-based human rights and policy advocacy groups.Online Human Rights Advocacy Platform:Asia Catalyst with Drexel University soft-launched a health and human rights hub that encompasses our core Know It, Prove It, Change It approach to human rights documentation and advocacy, increasing its availability and accessibility globally through a free course and online resources. We engaged in communications work for its launch and supported the translation of some of the modules into Burmese, and the sites technical and design maintenance through February, with a gift to Drexel to help continue the site.COVID Programming:Asia Catalyst completed a report summarizing a years work with grassroots marginalized communities on accessing the COVID vaccine in Asia. This report was provided to the funder and outlined all of the activities, including literacy workshops, focus group discussions, fact sheets in Thai and English, and activist campaign development meetings, as well as a final regional summit to address COVID vaccine barriers, and was a great success from a coalition-strengthening and advocacy point of view as we provided leadership and technical expertise to inform the Peoples Vaccine Asia campaign and other efforts to increase vax access in low- and middle-income countries.Harm Reduction and Drug Policy:Asia Catalyst managed and submitted a case study project and report highlighting drug user-led organization best practices for the International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD).Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria:Asia Catalyst completed its opioid substitution therapy (OST) in highly restrictive countries project, overseeing a final report and helping implement a webinar for key UN and government stakeholders chosen by the Global Fund, to hear the value of community-based OST and discuss technical approaches and options for scaling up in key countries targeted by the Global Fund.In addition, Asia Catalyst participated in a consortium (including Georgetown University, amfAR, and Health GAP) providing community-led monitoring (CLM) technical assistance to an array of countries. Asia Catalyst managed a project in Laos and completed a Landscape Assessment in Cambodia. For Laos, we identified and hired a consultant to complete a gap assessment to ascertain the needs of highly marginalized malaria-vulnerable groups of mobile and migrant populations and forest-goers in southern Laos.Closure:Asia Catalyst focused on the transition to closure through carrying out tasks outlined in a Transition Memo that the Executive Director, Accountant, and Board committee led by its chairperson, ensuring a timely and effective process. This also included a communications plan in which Asia Catalyst duly informed its staff, project partners, donors, and general community of supporters using various media of the imminent closure so that no outstanding issues would be an impediment. This was successfully achieved in early 2022.