On 10th June, AFEW International attended one of the most valued charity dinners in the Netherlands in the field of AIDS awareness – the Amsterdam Dinner. Since 1992, it has been the largest fundraiser in the Netherlands to make a world without AIDS possible. More than 1000 guests attended this year including special guests – her highness Princess Mabel, Princess Margarita, Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, and other famous guests. This year the Amsterdam Dinner raised money for women and girls living with HIV, that’s why Winnie Byanyima, director of UNAIDS, became a special guest of the event. She received the Amsterdam Dinner Award 2023 for her efforts in empowering women and girls all over the world, reducing inequality and ensuring access to HIV testing and lifesaving treatments and care.
AFEW International at the Amsterdam Dinner
During the Amsterdam Dinner, Yuliya van Polanen, Executive Director of AFEW International and Yulia Komo, Programme and Public Affairs Director, presented a project ‘Comprehensive mental health support for Ukrainian refugees living with HIV in the Netherlands’. Thanks to the small grants programme, AFEW International raised 20 000 EUR for this initiative. AFEW International was supported in attendance by special guests, such as Ms. Sheila de Vries, designer, couturier and dressmaker to Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands; Ms. Laura Fygi, a famous Dutch singer, Mr. Robbert Mittendorff, a board member of Royal Industrieele Groote Club, Mr. Ronald Heister, the owner of Ronald Heister with Tolga Zivali, Public Relations BV, Mr Jacques Buhling, former real estate investor and oil tycoon, and Mrs. Inna Hazekamp-Boukreeva, a jewelry designer, artist and the wife of the professor Mark Hazekamp, former Chair of The European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and one of Europe’s most distinguished open heart surgeons for children.
Yulia van Polanen, Executive Director of AFEW International:
I would like to thank Brandon O’Dell, Director of the Amsterdam Dinner, for the opportunity to present our project “Comprehensive mental health support for Ukrainian refugees living with HIV in the Netherlands” during the Amsterdam Dinner.
Addressing the needs of underserved populations across Europe and Eastern Europe and Central Asia remains core to AFEW International’s strategy. Underserved communities still face significant barriers to accessing essential health and social services and our goal is to make sure that they have access to health care free from stigma and discrimination in any country of the EU and the EECA region.
About the project
The main goal of the project ‘Comprehensive mental health support for Ukrainian refugees living with HIV in the Netherlands’ is to increase the mental health of Ukrainians with HIV, causing their ability to initiate or continue and adhere to ARV treatment.
According to estimates, by the end of the first quarter of 2023, the number of Ukrainian refugees with HIV in the Netherlands reached 500 people. This means the number of people living with HIV in the country has increased by about 5% over the last year. Since men are not allowed to leave the country, most of those fleeing Ukraine due to the war are women accompanied by children and teenagers. As a result, they perform disproportionately many obligations, including paid work, housework, and parenting responsibilities, which often leads to extreme exhaustion. In addition to frequent mental health issues affecting war refugees, such as trauma, fear for loved ones, and difficulties in social integration, those living with HIV are exposed to additional factors, possibly leading to severe mental health outcomes, such as stigma associated with belonging to a vulnerable social group (ex-drug-user, sex worker, person with disability) and being a person living with HIV. The project will be launched on July 1 2023.
