Campaign Urges Ukrainian Students to Get HIV Tested
Eight leading Kyiv-based universities, 300 volunteers, and more than 50,000 students took part in the “Test for HIV in Your University” event in honor of World AIDS Day 2007. In all, 1,334 students and university professors took HIV tests. The event was the largest of its kind ever conducted in Ukrainian universities.
Since 2005, the HIV/AIDS Information and Resource Centre, run by the non-governmental organization Socium XXI, has organized an annual HIV testing campaign targeting Kyiv universities. The goals of this effort are to reduce stigma and fear which often hamper HIV testing efforts, to increase awareness, and to promote safer sex practices to prevent further spread of the virus.
In 2007, effective cooperation with student organizations and the Kyiv Student Council helped draw participation from more universities and significantly scale-up the annual event. The campaign delivered health information and services ranging from anonymous HIV testing and counselling to HIV-related discussion sessions to the distribution of free condoms along with detailed information on prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV. Pocket-sized condom boxes were specially designed to appeal to young people by advertising firm Uspishna Marka, in cooperation with the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine.
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| More than 1,000 students and professors took a voluntary test to determine their HIV status as a result of the 2007 World AIDS Day “Test for HIV in Your University” campaign in Kyiv, Ukraine |
In fact, the campaign was actively supported by key stakeholder organizations who directly contributed to its success. The Kyiv City AIDS Centre ensured reliable testing at the participating universities, USAID supplied 60,000 free condoms, and the Olena Franchuk Anti-AIDS Foundation and International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine provided Socium XXI with informational materials and trained volunteers to manage the campaign.
“Test for HIV in Your University” is a part of a larger scale effort to reduce stigma and fear associated with HIV testing conducted by the USAID-supported project Scaling-up the National Response to HIV/AIDS through Information and Services (SUNRISE). In close partnership with the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), the Alliance Ukraine supports and promotes voluntary HIV counselling and testing (VCT) for vulnerable populations. As of September 2007, PATH had conducted 14 training sessions on VCT management for employees of AIDS centres, AIDS-service NGOs, drug-abuse and STI clinics. As a result, roughly 30,000 people have received counselling and HIV testing since the start of the VCT project in July 2006.
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