It's evening and the sun is going down behind the hotel near the Arabian Sea. It is a beautiful evening, balmy and cool. It feels good to be lying in bed writing after this long, full day.

After the yoga class with the commercial sex workers, YouthAIDS Mumbai sat us down and explained that to meet their objectives, they have divided their project into six focal components: Communicating with Sex Workers and their Clients, Promotion and Distribution of Preventative Products, Promotion and Provision of Health-Seeking Services, The MSM (men who have sex with men) Project, The Green Dot Program—working with Injecting Drug Users (IDUs), Center of Excellence, and Efficacy and Empowerment.

We were told that over the next five days we will have an opportunity to experience all seven aspects firsthand through participating in innovative field activities.

The folks at YouthAIDS Mumbai wanted us to understand the challenges of the operation and the population they serve. Most of the men and women are illiterate, so the majority of their educational efforts come through the form of street theater, games, mixed-media activities, and mobile exhibitions. Communication and accessibility are critical elements for the success of their mission.It is important to adapt to the populations they are serving, otherwise they run the risk of alienating the community they desire to reach. Since sex workers and their clients are their most targeted group, YouthAIDS Mumbai have offices in key locations where there are congested numbers of these people gathered in a single area.

Despite the statistic that 60 percent of Mumbai citizens live in slums and 27 percent live below the poverty line, Mumbai is actually a very prosperous city. It attracts many migrant workers. The large presence of single men creates an atmosphere conducive to the emergence and persistence of a profitable sex trade industry. In Mumbai alone there are more than 5,000 brothel-based sex workers seeing about 325,000 clients (the number of sex-workers and their clients is likely much higher, but it is difficult to tally the exact number of independent sex workers and indentured servants (often minors). Approximately 40 percent of migrant workers visit prostitutes. Not surprisingly, this results in the increased transmission and acquisition of HIV/AIDS—especially among women in rural areas. In other words, these men are having unprotected sex with infected prostitutes and then going home to their villages and having unprotected sex with their girlfriends and wives.

Migrant workers are not the only concern. Many of India's thousands of truck drivers also engage in high-risk behaviors, spreading the disease across the country to other sex workers in cities and villages along their route and home to their wives. These women are then 95 percent more likely to give birth to HIV-infected children. (Although, there is an injection, nevirapine, that could spare the newborn, the mother will likely pass on the infection through breastfeeding—which is often the only option mother's here can afford.

One big problem is that, without testing, these men, women, and children don't even know they carry the virus! And if they are aware of HIV/AIDS and suspect they might be at risk, they are often afraid to even visit a local clinic. Most probably couldn't afford the testing price, anyway! Not that it would matter. The men and women in these targeted areas are too poor to even get clean water and food, let alone receive the life-sustaining treatments available in the likelihood of a positive result. This means they will eventually die from AIDS-related illnesses. It's not only a health issue. It's an economic issue, a political issue, a social issue, and an issue of spirit since HIV/AIDS leads to depression, isolation, shame, and hopelessness.

Since there is neither a cure nor a vaccine, the key to halting this crisis is education. Teaching correct and consistent condom use, how, why, and where to get tested, making products, testing, counseling, and treatment available is critical to the YouthAIDS program. To escalate the challenge, they must do it in a way that is non-shaming, alienating, or judgmental.

Upon learning some of the many objectives of YouthAIDS Mumbai, I was anxious to get out into the field to experience first hand the face of this crisis.

I will get my chance. Next, I'm going to Dharavi, the largest slum in all of Asia.