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Almost 100 researchers from Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) have received mentorship and expert support through the mentorship program that was established by AFEW International together with Amsterdam Youth Force and Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA). Applicants for XXII International AIDS Conference 2018 have received support with editing, translating, and structuring their work according to the abstract requirements.

Only in 2017, 688 female drug users and vulnerable women in the Republic of Tajikistan were provided with the prevention and social services within the project Bridging the Gaps: Health and Rights for Key Populations 2.0 that is financed by the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. Tahmina’s story is one of the positive stories of women in Tajikistan, who, due to the social and legal support of the project Bridging the Gaps: Health and Rights for Key Populations 2.0, again received hope and planned positive changes in their lives.

Since January 2018, HIV and tuberculosis programmes in Kyrgyzstan are funded from the new, significantly reduced grant of the Global Fund. There were six months of discussions concerning cost optimization and reduction, taking into account the growing deficit of funds that the country is facing in the nearest three years. The cost-saving mode has already been introduced, first of all affecting the prevention programmes.

With this letter, we – undersigned civil society organizations – call on you to reconsider the position of Prof. Michel Kazatchkine as your Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA). Michel Kazatchkine was recently announced to serve as special advisor to UNAIDS for HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C by the UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe.

It has been a year since the project Fast-track HIV/TB responses among key populations in cities of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (HIV/TB CITIES) has been operating in Almaty, Balti, Odesa, Sofia, and Tbilisi. Different countries, contexts, mentalities and different… results. Roman Dudnik, Executive Director of the Public Foundation AIDS Foundation East-West in Kazakhstan is telling about the project implementation in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

In the joint survey conducted in 2015 by the National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health, 32% of men and 2.9% of women in Georgia reported having used marijuana. The issue of cannabis decriminalisation and legalisation was first raised five years ago, but then the initiator of this idea – civil movement “The 2nd of June” – failed to get support even from the community of people who use drugs because they demanded to decriminalise not all the drugs, but only cannabis.