Alexander Chebin, project coordinator at the Regional Public Foundation “New Life”, Yekaterinburg, Russia.
For reference
“New Life” Foundation has been working in Yekaterinburg in the field of AIDS prevention and control, assistance to different categories of population since 2011. The key groups are (ex) prisoners, migrants, drug users, sex workers, people affected by HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis.
Difficulties due to the virus
Currently, we have suspended our activities on fast HIV and hepatitis outreach testing, activities in rehabilitation centers, penal inspections, police departments, federal enforcement agency system and other organizations.
Since the introduction of the country’s self-isolation regime, representatives of our key groups have found themselves in new realities – for example, their level of anxiety has significantly increased, including with regard to treatment and care. Also we have received many requests for psychological support. Due to changing economic circumstances, people have developed a lot of fears – they are afraid of losing their jobs and uncertainty in the future. We have already analyzed our work during 2 weeks of self-isolation. The number of requests through the means of communication increased several times. Our employees conduct consultations, provide psychological support and accompany participants “by phone”, through various messengers. This is especially important for people released from prisons, who do not have the skills to apply to government agencies using Internet resources.
Innovations
Fortunately, in a pandemic, our work does not stop. However, due to the virus and quarantine measures, we had to go online and interact with our participants remotely, through communications channels.
Due to the new rules of patient’s admission, the management of the AIDS Centre decided to involve volunteers to help in the delivery of life-saving antiretroviral therapy. Thus, since March 30, our employees have been actively involved in this process. Our two staff members take calls and consult people on how to register delivery. With the help of the Foundation’s car with a driver health workers are delivered to clients. Also, 3 employees and 1 “New Life”s volunteer drive their cars to deliver ARV therapy.
In addition, the Foundation does not stop providing legal and social assistance to people, doing it remotely. Also, we accompany people released from prison to medical organizations, help to deliver food packages, clothes. In case of emergency, one of our employees collects the kits for participants at our drop-in centre and delivers them to their homes with all necessary security measures.
In the future, we plan to go back to the way we used to work, assess and reflect on our experience in the pandemic and perhaps make adjustments to some aspects of our work.
