Drug Demand Reduction Program Reaches Vulnerable Populations
Drug demand reduction is an important part of USAID’s strategy in Central Asia, a region faced with a sharp increase in injecting drug use that has the potential to spur a raging HIV/AIDS epidemic. Drug-trafficking routes which had formerly passed through Afghanistan now snake through Central Asia, making drugs increasingly accessible to the region’s most vulnerable populations.
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| Vocational training for at-risk youth is one of many ways DDRP seeks to
reduce drug demand in Central Asia |
Between 2003 and 2007, the USAID-funded Drug Demand Reduction Program (DDRP) implemented a range of activities in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and the Ferghana Valley region of Kyrgyzstan to address this pressing social and public health threat. Over the past four years, DDRP has awarded more than 50 grants to NGOs and government organizations, and developed protocols to establish Treatment Readiness, Drug-Free Treatment, and Rehabilitation Centers for drug users in all three countries. DDRP has worked closely with its partners to deliver drug demand reduction and health promotion messages, producing a regional TV campaign for youth on the health risks associated with injecting drug use and a documentary, “Fine Line,” for general audiences in Uzbekistan.
More than 1,200 people have accessed public health, HIV/AIDS, and drug prevention information through just one of DDRP’s resource centers (Dushanbe, Tajikistan), indicating considerable public demand for this material. Tajik labor migrants have received a guide specifically tailored for migrant populations. Since 2003, DDRP has provided vocational and drug demand reduction education to 460 vulnerable women, reached 1,500 rural-to-urban migrants through its drug demand reduction education and referral system, and trained more than 3,500 of the region’s professionals. To date, nearly 3,000 drug users have received treatment readiness, drug-free treatment, and rehabilitation services.
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