History

AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW) is a Dutch organisation. It was founded on 4 January 2001 with support from Médecins Sans Frontières – Holland (MSF-H), the Open Society Institute - New York (OSI), and the Dutch government. AFEW continues a wide range of HIV/AIDS prevention activities developed and implemented by MSF-H in the Russian Federation (RF), Ukraine and Mongolia between 1996 and 2001. During this period, it became increasingly clear that a larger response was needed. Given that no other organisation was capable of continuing existing MSF-H programmes and developing new ones as needed, the creation of AFEW was a logical step. Nearly all of the former MSF-H staff - approximately 60 personnel - transferred to the new organisation, thus retaining the knowledge and skills.