On June 24, AFEW International together with a partner Jeden Świat conducted the first online training “Mental health and HIV” for 20 Ukrainians in Poland, including people with or affected by HIV, activists, volunteers, workers living with HIV and have had some activity in the field of HIV, women living with HIV, men living with HIV, LGBT persons living with HIV, etc. The training was organized in the framework of “Programme of training and mentorship for the Ukrainian refugees living with HIV in Poland”.
“Our first training was about mental health”, – Vera Varyga tells, the manager of the project. During this training, we covered a lot of different aspects of mental health, such as prevention, mental disorders and HIV, mindfulness, pharmacotherapy of mental disorders, psychotherapy, mental health “helper” and a lot of other issues. We hope that the training will make participants more aware of the topic of support, prevention and treatment of psychological health, which will help them to identify the condition of other HIV-positive Ukrainian refugees in the future. I would like to thank our trainers from Jeden Świat Dr. Maria Brodzikowska, Lek. Stanisław Żołądek and our translator Vlasyslav Denysiuk. The next offline training will be organized on July 1-2 in Warsaw.”
For reference
One of the AFEW International’s strategic directions is Improving resilience of communities and addressing the negative consequences of the crisis in Ukraine and the implications for the entire region. Following this direction, at the end of March 2023 we launched the Programme of training and mentorship for the Ukrainian refugees living with HIV in Poland. The project’s goal is the expansion of equal and full participation of the PLHIV Ukrainian refugees in Polish HIV programmes. It is expected that it will lead to the strengthening of effective, inclusive and responsive programmes and policies, developed with the full participation of all PLHIV Ukrainian refugees living in Poland. Under the framework of this project, 6 training sessions are scheduled for the Ukrainian participants (3 online and 3 offline) involving local organisations operating in the field of HIV services, supporting communities like LGBTQ and women living with HIV.
The project is supported by VIIV HEALTHCARE (GIPA ACCELERATOR FUND).
