Programme streams description
View projects
Mass media campaigns are not only one of the most effective ways of providing information to the general public, but also an effective method used to influence attitude on the issue at hand and make its input in influencing personal behaviors accordingly.
Media campaigns with a ‘safer sex’ message have been carried out by AFEW specialists in the region since 1996. Years of experience allowed AFEW specialists to develop a best practice model in organizing and implementing mass media campaigns. AFEW experience is grounded in international experience and best practice and is closely adapted to the local context. Sociological research among the target audience is conducted as a precursor to each campaign and is followed-up by post-campaign surveys that evaluate and chart the impact of our campaign efforts and can serve a as basis for a follow-up campaign.
AFEW has developed campaign models on a spectrum of HIV/AIDS related issues. Starting in 1996 with a series of campaigns addressing safer sex. in 2000 AFEW launched the first campaign on solidarity with people living with HIV/AIDS. In 2005 AFEW implemented its first campaign on access to ARV-treatment.
View projects
After the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia toughened the penalties for drug-related offences in the 1990s, the number of young inmates rose sharply, due in large part to the sentencing of injecting drug users. Many of these people were HIV positive. The penal system was ill prepared for this: neither its medical workers nor its psychologists and educators, many of whom have daily contact with inmates, had adequate training in providing them with the necessary information, treatment and care. Nor did they have adequate information and training on how to protect themselves from exposure to the virus. But the situation was even more difficult for inmates who found themselves isolated from the outside world and deprived of access to vital and reliable information about their specific medical and social care needs.
AFEW, working in close co-operation with national penal administrations, is already since 1999 developing and introducing HIV prevention and health promotion programme in penal systems in Eastern Europe and Central Asia . AFEW's staff are conducting training seminars for prison inmates, medical personnel and prison non-medical staff, as well as supplying these institutions with information materials, condoms and disinfectants.
In addition, AFEW is one of the first non-governmental organisations to work with the Federal Penal Service within the various EECA countries to start developing and introducing educational programmes, post graduate studies, textbooks and training materials aimed at helping prison personnel retrain and raise their qualifications gaining access to cutting edge information and skills related to health and HIV/AIDS.
View projects
It is estimated that in 2005, the number of injection drug users in Eastern European and Central Asian countries reached nearly 11 million; the vast majority being 15-35 years of age1. Each one of them is vulnerable to HIV infection. In Russia and other countries in the region, HIV spreads quickest among injection drug users. This is due, primarily, to sharing injection equipment. However, the situation can be appeased by harm reduction programmes directed at helping injection drug users to reduce their personal risk to HIV infection.
The harm reduction philosophy sees health promotion for injecting drug users (IDUs) as a continuum of measures. While it would be preferable for these groups to quit drug use altogether, it is possible to immediately lower the chances of HIV transmission by taking specific preventive measures.
Although similar programmes have long been successful in the countries of Western Europe, they are relatively new to countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia and have not been widely implemented.
In many cases, injecting drug users are marginalised and unable to receive the support they need. Educating them on how to protect themselves from HIV, and how to properly take care of their health can help them make the first step towards getting as healthy as possible trough the drug-taking period in their lifes. AFEW focuses on capacity building trainings for social workers, medical professionals and volunteers working with injection drug users. AFEW introduces successful international and EECA experiences and helps professionals to adopt and apply this new knowledge and skills base to their everyday practice and work setting. AFEWs goal is to create local-, social and peer-based support systems that will help injection drug users gain access to the information, services and materials needed to make informed decisions regarding their personal health and well-being.
View projects
Over the last decade, countries of the former Soviet Union witnessed growing numbers of women entering into the region’s growing sex industry. Taking into account numerous factors including: high rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs); the growing rates of HIV infection among women in the region; epidemiological and behavior patterns relevant to the sex business, women in the sex industry are at great risk of contracting and transmitting HIV/STIs on to their sexual partners.
At the same time, sex workers often find it difficult to access official public health structures where medical care and psychosocial support is provided. AFEW programmes targeting sex workers seek to involve all stakeholders in implementing responsive HIV/AIDS interventions. Comprehensive skills-building training programmes and information materials produced by AFEW transfer international best practice experience, skills and knowledge to support health and social service providers in delivering quality services to sex work populations.
AFEW supports direct services for sex workers – such as drop-in center facilities, peer support groups, and outreach activities. Information materials developed in cooperation with sex workers and local NGO/ governmental partners help ensure that women involved in the sex industry have access to information essential in making informed decisions regarding their personal health. Every material includes reference information and contact details to health and psychosocial services available in their city / town.
View projects
Once a person has decided to take an HIV test, they have already taken the first step in looking after their own health. This moment is an ideal opportunity for a specialist to provide them with the necessary information about how HIV is spread, which behaviors increase an individual’s risk of infection and how best to reduce these risks. For those whose test results turn out positive, counselling becomes even more necessary – after all, at this moment, more than ever, people need counselling support and practical information that will help them grasp the meaning of the result and come to terms with the inevitable changes in their lives. That is why voluntary pre- and post-HIV test counseling has long been recognized throughout the world as an effective means of preventing infection and providing crucial support to people just learning of their HIV status. The principles and methods of HIV counseling have been tried and tested and are widely used in Western Europe, but in the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia specialists do not yet have enough experience in this area.
AFEW's specialists teach medical workers the principles and methods of confidential voluntary testing. After undergoing this training, doctors are able to advise their patients on the questions of safer sex and the risk of contracting or transmitting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. The training produces a number of specialists who are able to convey this newly-acquired knowledge to their colleagues through methods of Training of Trainers (ToT), thereby creating a ‘snowball’ effect.
View projects
Women living with HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia deciding to have children are likely to encounter a range of problems including insufficient access to quality, user-friendly health related information, professional medical care and essential treatment. As a result, the number of children acquired HIV is constantly rising.
While there were only six recorded cases of HIV-positive children in Russia in 1996, that number of children born to HIV-positive women had increased to 9 918 by the end of 2004. At the same time, many of these children could have been born healthy if their mothers had received adequate treatment in time. Modern antiretroviral drugs for HIV-positive mothers-to-be help 99 babies out of 100 come into the world healthy and free from HIV infection.
But access to the necessary services is not enough. It is essential for expectant mothers to be able to get professional advice on a number of important issues: How should the drugs be taken? What other precautionary measures are needed? How should HIV-positive mothers prepare themselves for childbirth, and what should they feed their babies? In the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the doctors themselves sometimes hesitate to answer these questions.
AFEW's programmes on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV aim to turn this situation around. AFEW is now creating a system to supply the regions with the medicines and milk formula that HIV-positive mothers and their babies need, as well as teaching the necessary skills to healthcare staff at maternity wards, gynecologists and staff of children's clinics, and conducting training seminars for peer counselors. The ultimate goal of these programmes is to create a comprehensive system of uninterrupted care and treatment at the local level that will help every HIV-positive woman give birth to a healthy baby.
View projects
As surveys demonstrate men who have sex with men (MSM) are one of the most vulnerable groups facing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Ukraine because of the stigma they face, their lack of knowledge about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and their high-risk sexual behaviors (e.g. low levels of condom use). Thus, there is a clear need to inform MSM on the means to preventing HIV infection and other STIs, as well as breaking the silence and stigma around sexual orientation and improving access to quality health and psychosocial care services for MSM.
Gay Alliance is currently the only Ukrainian NGO working to provide information and direct services to MSM on issues of HIV/AIDS. In 2004, AFEW began working closely with the Gay Alliance in designing and implementing a pilot project to build the capacities of the NGO and health service providers in Kyiv in delivering quality, user-friendly HIV/STI prevention and care services.
View projects
1 Aceijas C, Stimson GV, Hickman M, Rhodes T. Global overview of injecting drug use and HIV infection among injecting drug users. AIDS. 2004 Nov 19;18(17):2295-303.
AFEW:
