Jeeva is a registered on 05 November 2012 as a Trust, (Non Government Organisation) that strives to build a society where all people can live in peace and express themselves freely irrespective of their gender identity or sexual orientation. For the next three years, Jeeva will focus on addressing issues around mental health, livelihood and community media for sexual minorities in Karnataka. Speci
fically, our objectives for this period are first to improve the mental health status of sexual minorities by providing counseling, using Art therapy, formation of affinity groups, improving the knowledge and skills of social workers working with sexual minorities, developing links and referrals to various Government mental health facilities, advocacy for expanding mental health services to sexual minorities and facilitating the interaction between sexual minorities and society at large. Secondly to expand livelihood options for sexual minorities through building positive attitude towards employment, promoting financial planning and savings, training and hand-holding to start their own enterprise, skill development, develop links and referrals to various employment providers, advocating with the government and private sector for employment opportunities and social welfare measures for sexual minorities and facilitating the use of social welfare measures of the government by sexual minorities. Thirdly to amplify the voice of sexual minorities through community media by facilitating the production of print and audio-visual materials (training and other support), blogs, web sites and training in using social media. Further sensitizing mainstream media on issues of sexual minorities, setup and run community radio stations, and facilitating sexual minorities in getting employed in the mainstream media.
