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Infectious diseases hospital, Orehovo-Zuevo, Moscow region, Russian Federation (Photo by Ilse Frech - Copyright Ilse Frech / Digital scans by Luna-x colour studio & gallery, Amsterdam)

• The countries of the former Soviet Union have some of the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world.
  
• Whilst the number of officially reported cases across the region reaches in the hundreds of thousands of people living with HIV (PLHIV), most experts agree that roughly 1.6 million HIV-positive individuals already exist in EECA. Ukraine was the first European country to reach a 1% HIV-positive adult population.
  
• AFEW is the organisation specifically designed to fight the HIV epidemic in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Through its physical presence in the region, AFEW is in the best position to advocate action in the region on the part of both the East and the West.
  

Since 2001, AFEW has developed, produced and implemented mass media campaigns on safer sex and solidarity for people living with HIV/AIDS in Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. In 2006 during the first safer sex campaign carried out in Moldova, 10 billboards were put up around Chisinau, two radio advertisements and two video clips were broadcast, and more than 2000 stickers, and 300 000 informational materials were distributed among young people. In a post-campaign survey, AFEW found that there was a 30% increase in reported condom use amongst unwed youth who heard the campaign message.

In 2006, AFEW and the Russian Harm Reduction Network trained 530 harm reduction project staff members in 10 Russian regions and 19 community-based research studies were conducted using rapid assessment and response methods. Research shows that harm reduction programmes result in establishing close contacts with the target group, and, then, injecting drug users are more likely to take care of their health, reduce risky practices, and, in some cases, stop using drugs.

Informational materials produced by AFEW in 2001-2008

Since its start, AFEW has worked in the Russian prison system to spread HIV prevention and health promotion messages to staff and inmates alike; AFEW expanded its prison system activities to Central Asia in 2002. Through training workshops and making the right information available, the climate of fear associated with HIV among prison staff and inmates has diminished. In 2006, 2173 inmates in Kyrgyz, Tajik and Uzbek prisons took part in educational programmes on drug demand reduction and health promotion, and 676 inmates in Russian prisons received training on HIV prevention.

Over 290 000 informational materials on the issues of HIV and reproductive health, pregnancy and antiretroviral treatment were distributed to participants of the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission project in Russia, and 2500 HIV-positive pregnant women received complete courses of prophylaxis during the first nine months of 2006.

In 2006, 1610 injecting drug users, sex workers and former inmates were linked into medical, psycho-social and legal services at four project sites across Central Asia through AFEW’s HIV Client Management project.

AIDS Foundation East-West training for prison doctors on HIV/AIDS prevention (Photo by David Gillanders - Copyright david gillanders_photography, mob_+44 (0)7974 920 189; e_david@dg-photo.co.uk )