In Kyiv, the final forum was held of the Regional Program “Partnership for Equal Access to HIV Services in Eastern Europe and Central Asia”, implemented by the ECUO with financial support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The event was attended by experts from national consortia from 11 countries of the project, representatives of public health sector, community experts and members of key populations.
Vladimir Zhovtyak, Co-Chairman of the ECUO on the #Partnership forum:
“I hope we managed to create a platform for the exchange of opinions, experience, knowledge and achievements”, said Vladimir Zhovtyak, Сo-Сhairman of the ECUO. – “We have learned more about each other’s problems, as well as about the ways in which each of us overcomes these barriers in our countries. Thank you for your experience, knowledge, efforts that you contributed to the project and the conference, I hope and I am sure that this is not the final meeting, we are looking forward to further hard work in removing barriers to access to treatment, as long as our region remains the only area of world that failed to curb HIV infection. We still have a lot of work ahead of us”.
Within the framework of the #Partnership Forum, our work was presented in the context of the implementation of the project objectives outlined in the Regional Community Action Plan, and further objectives were formulated for the advocacy of continued access to HIV services in the EECA region to ensure succession between national and regional projects.
At the 24 sessions, presentations and speeches of the event, participants discussed the results of the overall project work and the repeated baseline assessment, explored uncovered areas in advocacy projects aimed at increasing access to HIV in the EECA region, and actively learned lessons from successes and failures.
Elena Herman: ECOM program director:
“The project was very complex both in terms of implementation, in terms of the fact that it envisaged very ambitious goals, a huge number of countries, organizations and consortia. I strongly believe that we all will draw our lessons from this project and will definitely use them in the future”.
Ira Maslova, Alliance of Sex Workers:
“I understand how difficult it is to work together. Thanks to the “Partnership”, we also are growing little by little, we were probably the most furious, the most hard-boiled, I sincerely felt sorry for our partners in the country, we growled, shouted, stomped our feet, but still did a useful thing for people – this is most important”.
Elena Bilokon, Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS:
“Thanks to all those who participated in the Partnership project. The ECUO really achieved the impossible thing – they united 32 groups that had previously been scattered. They promoted those interests that are relevant today in our community”.
The regional program, coordinated by the East Europe and Central Asia Union of People Living with HIV (ECUO), was implemented in 15 countries of the EECA region with the financial support of the Global Fund in 2016-2018.
Author: Vladimir Tsymbaliuk