How We Work
With an experienced team of domestic and international staff (approx. 115), and an increasingly expanding network of international consultants, AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW) bases its operations from three regional offices in EECA, and its headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In all countries in which AFEW works, activities are carried out in close co-operation with national governmental and non-governmental agencies.
AFEW has developed a system of replication, which adapts successful international HIV programmes, based on best practices to the local conditions in other countries across the region. Currently, AFEW carries out programmes in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Simultaneously, AFEW develops additional programmes that address issues specific to the region related to HIV in the fields of prevention, treatment, care and support to PLHIV as they arise.
At AFEW, we firmly believe that each and every individual has the right to access information and services on the basis of their need. To this end, services must be grounded in the principles of equity, accessibility, affordability, comprehensiveness and sustainability. In support of the United Nations’ tenets of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, AFEW’s programme activities:
- Focus on vulnerable groups that are usually beyond the purview of traditional models of service delivery. As such, AFEW interventions take a pro-active approach in addressing equitable access to care.
- Engage in continual improvement and innovation to ensure activities increase the accessibility of quality information and services (through, for example, client management, community outreach, and peer education).
- Identify and respond to gaps in the provision of services to strengthen and ensure a comprehensive package of services for people living with or at risk of HIV infection.
- Address issues of sustainability by building the coping capacity of people and institutions to prevent new infections and assist individuals already living with HIV in accessing quality treatment and care in a way that preserves their dignity and enhances their ability to cope.
