Engaging Communities to Fight Stigma, Discrimination
Ukraine is a young country that has inherited many old stereotypes and prejudices after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. One is the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS. Unfortunately, in Ukraine, this damaging inheritance presents a major hurdle for programs that focus on the prevention, treatment or care of people living with HIV/AIDS.
Since the end of 2004, USAID has been implementing a program to reducing the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS which seeks to foster a more tolerant and accepting attitude in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Donetsk oblast toward people living with HIV/AIDS.
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IRD volunteers at the World AIDS Memorial Day street campaign, May 21, 2006
Photo Credit: Elena Shevchenko |
To this end, USAID and its implementing partner, International Relief and Development (IRD) use a community-based approach to fight stigma and discrimination. Since the program’s inception, IRD has trained 62 master trainers, 1,006 trainer instructors, and 11,510 peer educators to reach more than 38,000 people in targeted communities. IRD works in collaboration with the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (AUN of PLWHA), medical personnel, educators, social workers and lawyers to recruit local volunteers to serve as master trainers, instructors and peer educators. These volunteers educate their peers and encourage them to adopt more tolerant attitudes toward people living with HIV. Using the network of master trainers and instructors, IRD specifically developed an anti-stigma and discrimination training course.
Peer education training is strengthened by events that provide basic information and draw on people’s emotions and compassion. These events show the human face of the HIV epidemic. The play, I Love Life, and the mini-musical, Understand! Assist! Support!, educate audiences about HIV transmission while showing how HIV can affect everybody. The audience-participation play, Time of the Innocents, educates communities about the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS by inviting spectators to play the role of the jury. Look Into the Eyes, a powerful photo exhibit, emphasizes human values and the roles people living with HIV/AIDS play in society, regardless of their HIV status. IRD’s summer camp program, Intersection, brings people with and without HIV together, helping them learn how to live under “one roof,” to overcome fears and make friends based on their individuality, not on their HIV status. School debates, forum theaters, contest of drawings and posters provide other ways of reducing stigma and fighting stereotypes in the communities. The winners of these contests receive awards, and the best posters and drawings are displayed in cities and towns across the two regions.
During the two and a half years the program has operated, USAID has supported more than 140 public events attended by over 50,000 people, fostering understanding and tolerance toward people living with HIV/AIDS needed to help fight the disease.
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