AFEW Projects  

Drug Demand Reduction and Health Promotion Among Sex Workers
Kyrgyzstan

PROJECT DURATION: October 2002 through September 2005

DONOR(S): United States Agency for International Development (USAID; www.usaid.gov)

The Drug Demand Reduction Programme (DDRP) is a five-year USAID-funded initiative in Central Asia designed to respond to the dramatic increase in drug use among vulnerable populations in two key countries of a region in which HIV/AIDS is spreading rapidly and primarily through injecting drug use.

Throughout the five-year Programme, Drug Demand Reduction interventions will be implemented in select oblasts of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and the Ferghana Valley region of Kyrgyzstan with the short term goal of 'increased knowledge and skills with respect to the prevention of drug use in select populations'. This is stated as a step toward the long-term goal of a 'decrease in drug use among these select populations'.

PARTNER(S): The Open Society Institute - Kyrgyzstan, Population Services International (PSI); Accord - an affiliate of Street Kids International; Internews; The Ministry of Health of Kyrgyzstan, The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kyrgyzstan.

REGION: Ferghana Valley region of Kyrgyzstan; Osh.

BACKGROUND:The number of women working in the sex industry has rapidly increased in the Central Asian Republics during the last decade. This growing phenomenon is the result of a multitude of factors including the significant and far-reaching socio-economic and political changes which have continued to sweep the region since gaining independence in the early 1990s.

Many women from this region continue to struggle with high levels of unemployment and ultimately, the feminisation of poverty. Sex work is often one of the few income-generating options available to support themselves and their families. As such, tendencies such as high migration patterns from rural to urban regions, and frequent movement across borders into neighbouring countries, have been noted among women and young girls.

Drug use and sex work are strongly interlinked. Drug users often sell or trade sex for narcotics and sex workers often use drugs as a coping mechanism. As of 1 February 2005, the Republican AIDS Centre reported   669 registered cases of HIV/AIDS for Kyrgyzstan. Among these cases, 81% are attributed to injecting drug use where the route of transmission is known. An additional 18% of registered cases have been attributed to heterosexual contact.