For Journalists 

Your Health – In Your Hands!
Launch of the national mass media campaign on access to ARV therapy in Ukraine for people living with HIV/AIDS

Date: 30 September 2005
Time: 11:00
Place: UNIAN Press Centre, 4 Khreschatyk St.

Registration of press conference participants begins at 10:30

On 30 September 2005, a new mass media campaign, aimed at informing the population about ARV therapy for HIV-positive people, will be launched. The aim of the campaign is to motivate people to undergo HIV testing in order to detect the presence of the virus and get timely treatment where needed.

The campaign will be conducted by the Dutch humanitarian organisation AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW), in co-operation with the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV and regional non-governmental organisations, and with the support of the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and Ministry of Youth and Sport.

The informational campaign will run in seven regions of Ukraine (Kyiv, Odesa, Simferopol, Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Lviv, and Dnipropetrovsk) under the slogan ‘Your Health – In Your Hands!’ It will last for four months and will consist of video and audio clips, outdoor advertisements and informational materials (leaflets aimed both at the general population and at medical specialists). The face of the campaign is Maria Burmaka, a famous Ukrainian singer who has been involved in fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic for many years.

This is the first mass media campaign informing people about ARV therapy in Ukraine. The concept was developed using research carried out by AFEW in co-operation with the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV in February and March 2005.

The campaign will be implemented with the support of the International Alliance on HIV/AIDS in Ukraine, as part of the ‘Overcoming HIV/AIDS in Ukraine’ programme, and with further support from the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and the Dutch Organisation for International Development Co-operation (Novib-Oxfam).

To obtain more detailed information, please contact Ludmila Maistat, Project Manager, Mass Media Campaigns, AFEW
Tel.: +38 044 2358834, 2353001, 2358820
E-mail: ludmila_maistat@afew.org