Reducing vulnerability to HIV before and after disasters
In the fall of 2006, Oxfam undertook a partnership with the Swasti Health Resource Center of Bangalore to study what impact the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami may have had on the risk of contracting HIV in India's coastal villages. The purpose of the research was to understand whether and why the tsunami and its aftermath led to an increase in vulnerability to HIV, with the goal of helping aid providers and communities understand how to minimize the risks in future disasters.