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Ukraine: A Sad Story from The Life of the Substitution Therapy Patient

Maryna Reshetnyak — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:26:35 +0000

Recently two Ukrainian bloggers focused on harm reduction issues. Livejournal users depo3p and zpt_users reposted a story of a patient of the opiate replacement therapy (ORT) from the town of Shostka. The patient appeared to be in a serious trouble, and despite that fact the main reason of the problem was his behavior, the other patients did everything they could to help him.

The story was first published by the blogger vovan9619. He posted:

День добрый Всем !!! Хотелось бы поделиться некоторыми новостями,касаемо Сайта ЗПТ и его Участников.. Есть у нас (в Шостке) такой вот Лёша..На программе он вместе с Женой. Имеют маленькую …. Около года принимал препарат Он , чуть меньше-его жена.. Около двух недель назад,пропустив один день выдачи(по своим причинам..) он пришёл на сайт,через час после его закрытия. Будучи пьяным,он не понимал-почему ему не выдают препарат. Старшая медсестра-отказала в выдаче,.. Тогда он не отдавая себе отчёт в поступке-схватил её за горло и стал душить.., На следующий день,его исключили из программы, мало того-ст.медсестра,написала заявление на него,обвинив в побоях(..??)

Good day to everyone. I just wanted to share the news concerning our ORT site and the patients. There is a guy Lesha in our town, He attends the program together with his wife. They have a little daughter …He is on medications for about a year, and his wife just a little bit less. A couple of week ago he missed the business hours of the site (for his own reasons) and came to the site one hour after it was closed. He was drunk and could not understand why he can not receive the medicine. The senior nurse refused to give it to him. Then he started to strangle her not understanding what he was doing … next day he was expelled from the program and the nurse filed a report accusing him beating her.

In a few days the other patients of the ORT site started to worry about Lesha and his wife and decided to visit him. They found Lesha in a very bad condition, drunk and with severe abstinent syndrome. They decided to help him. Vovan9619 wrote:

В-общем провели с ним беседу,где он клятвенно пообещал-прекратить Пить и извиниться перед медсестрой. После чего было написано ходатайство глав.врачу, с просьбой восстановить его на Программе ЗПТ.. Глав.врач-подписал ходатайство,и спустя несколько дней,-Лёшу восстановили. …. В кругу Тех Людей,кто за него поручился-Лёша клятвенно пообещал не приходить на сайт-в нетрезвом состоянии,зная о том,-что может за ЭТО,получить “по ушам”-от Своих же,которых он может подвести… А мораль сей Истории такова;- ЗПТ и Алкоголь(даже - пиво !!!..)- НЕСОВМЕСТИМО !!!!

So we talked to him and he swore that he would stop drinking and apologies to the nurse. Than we submitted the appeal to the head doctor asking to renew him into the ORT program – and the doctor agreed to do this and in few days Lesha was renewed into the program. ….Lesha promised that he will never come to site drunk again to people who were like him. And he knew that he could be punished by these people and he could not let this people down. And the moral of this story is – ORT and alcohol (even a beer) are not compatible!!!!

After a few days the bloggers posted the second part of this story and it was not a story with a happy and. Vovan9619 posted:

Участник ЗПТ “ЛЁША ВАЩЕНКОВ”, благодаря тому что его все участники ЗПТ взяли на поруки и человеческому отношению главврача Орищак Н.С. Был возвращён на программу ЗПТ. Но … его здоровье было на столько подорвано, что он первый день еле пришел, второй день его привела мать. Лёша реально бредил , по всему видно, что очень БОЛЬШИЕ проблемы со здоровьем. Это не могли не заметить “наши” врачи из сайта и поэтому в срочном порядке он был направлен ….на второй этаж (стационар наркологии). Его осмотрел врач-нарколог … и .. определил, что ему нужно срочное обследование ХИРУРГА! Через 10 мин он уже был у хирурга, (рядом 50 метров поликлиника №1) Хирург в СРОЧНОМ порядке направил Ващенкова Лёшу в приёмное отделение ЦРБ г. Шостка.
НО, КАК ТОЛЬКО УЗНАЛИ ,ЧТО ОН НАРКОМАН, ЕМУ ОТКАЗАЛИСЬ ДЕЛАТЬ ОПЕРАЦИЮ, О НЕОБХОДИМОСТИ КОТОРОЙ, САМИ ЖЕ И ГОВОРИЛИ!
Лёше становилось все хуже , да и мать начала плакать и умолять врачей о помощи… НО, на , что они решились под этим натиском-направить его почемуто в ТЕРАПЕВТИЧЕСКОЕ отделение. Где он в … УМЕР В ТЕЧЕНИИ ДВУХЧАСОВ!

Because of the efforts of the other patients and human attitude of the chief doctor N.S. Orishchak, the ORT patient ‘Lesha Vashchenkov’ was renewed into the ORT program. But his health was so weak that during the first day he could hardly walk and on the second day his mother brought him to the site. He had delusions and it was obvious that he had very serious health problems. The doctors from our site noticed this and sent him … to the second floor (narcology hospital). The narcology doctor examined him and … said that he needed urgent assistance of a surgeon! In 10 minutes he was in a surgeon’s office (the policlinic #1) is within 50 meters from the office. The surgeon urgently sent Vashchenkov Lesha to the Central Regional Hospital of Shostka.

But when doctors of the hospital learned that he is a drug addict they refused to do the surgery which they insisted on before!

Lesha was feeling worse and his mother started crying and begging the doctors to help, but they decided to send him for some reasons to the therapy department where he died within 2 hours.

The patients were sure that the main reasons of the death of his counterparts was stigma towards people living with the drug addiction from he medical personnel. They established the initiative group to attract the attention of the society to their problems and, as they wrote, “to stop the conveyor of deaths”.

Ukraine: Harm Reduction Activists Appeal to the Executive Director of the Global Fund

Maryna Reshetnyak — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:19:41 +0000

At the middle of January the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Michel Kazatchkine visited Ukraine. Ukrainian harm reduction activists used this opportunity to advocate the rights of opiate replacement therapy (ORT) patients.

The Association of the Substitution Treatment Advocates of Ukraine submitted the appeal to Mr Kazatchkine with an outline of current situation with the opiate replacement therapy (ORT) in Ukraine and a list of the most significant problems with its implementation. The activists of the Association urged the Executive Director of the Global Fund to discuss the strategy of ORT implementation with the government of Ukraine. The appeal was personally handed out to Mr Kazatchkine by the member of the Association Anton Basenko.

Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Image by ICASO. CC BY-NC-ND.

In its letter to Mr. Kazatchkin the Association expressed gratitude to the Global Fund for the financial support of the substitution therapy in Ukraine. Currently 6632 patients receive the treatment, 18.1% out of them have TB and almost 45% are HIV positive. Although in general the ORT programs in Ukraine are very successful there are a few issues which need to be solved with regards to its implementation. The Association, which main goal is improving of the quality and availably of ORT, listed the issues in the letter and on its web page.

The first issue the letter outlined was absence of government funding for ORT programs which, the Association believes, harms the image of the programs as Ukrainian doctors often tell the patients that the program will despair when the Global Fund stops the funding.

The second identified issue was luck of availability of HIV treatment and treatment of the opportunistic infections such as hepatitis, TB and other diseases for patients which require stay in a hospital and a continuation of ORT. The patients often have to make a choice whether to continue the ORT and hide from the doctors the other health problems or to treat other diseases and to stop ORT.

The final serious issue is absence of an opportunity for the patients to receive Methadone through a pharmacy with the prescription of a doctor. This significantly slows down the process of re-socialization of the patients.

The activist Anton Basenko, who delivered the letter to the Executive Director of the Global Fund, concluded that today ORT programs in Ukraine became larger in quantity but not in quality.

The web-site focused on the issues of people living with the drug addiction Motilek posted another letter of appeal to Mr Kazatchkine. In his very emotional letter the harm reduction activist and the ORT patient Igor discussed the tendencies in ORT provision in Ukraine and identified the possible threats.

Igor claimed that the ORT program has significantly improved his life. He wrote:

Уже около 3-х лет я получаю заместительную поддерживающую терапию (ЗПТ) метадоном в одной из Киевских клиник. Мне 34 года. Из них 8 лет я кололся «ширкой» и 4 года провел в местах, как говорят у нас, не столь отдаленных.

Получаю ЗПТ, и вот уже пару лет, как почувствовал новый вкус жизни. Я осознал, что бездарно потратил в погоне за наркотиками много лучших лет своей жизни. Слава богу, я не заразился СПИДом. И это чудо. Многие ребята из моей прошлой «наркоманской» жизни сгорели от «дури» и от этой страшной болезни.

Я действительно называю эту часть жизни, когда я кололся, своим прошлым. Я остаюсь наркозависимым, потому что я получаю метадон каждый день, но я чувствую себя абсолютно нормальным человеком. Я не кайфую. Я просто живу как обычный человек. … Я работаю, женился, и мы с женой ждем ребенка. Сейчас это моя самая большая радость. Ей-то я и хочу с Вами поделиться. Этой радостью я обязан Альянсу, ГФ, врачам и медсестрам в больнице, куда я хожу каждый день. И я не хочу возвращаться в свое прошлое. Спасибо Вам, Мишель

It has been three years since I started receiving the opiate replacement therapy (ORT) with Methadone in one of the Kiev clinics. I am 34. For 8 years out of this I had used heroine and 4 years I spent in a prison.

I receive the ORT and it is already 2 years as I started to feel a taste of a new life. I realized how I wasted the best years of my life in hunting for drugs. Thanks good I did not get HIV. And this is a miracle. Many guys from my past life were ‘burned out’ with the drugs and this horrible disease.

I really call the part of my life when I injected the drugs ‘the past’. I am still a drug addict as every day I receive Methadone but I am totally normal person. I do not have any kef (euphoria from drugs). I live as an ordinary person. … I work, I got married and now I and my wife are waiting for a baby. This is my biggest joy and I want to share it with you. I would not have this joy without the HIV/AIDS Alliance, Global Fund, doctors and nurses of the hospital which I visit every day. I do not want to return to the past. Thank you for this, Michel.

Igor was very concerned with the future of ORT program is Ukraine and how it might affect his life. He was worried about the decision of the Global Fund to move the implementation of the program from the nonprofit organizations to the Ministry of Health Care of Ukraine. Igor believes the Ministry is very bureaucratic and very corrupted and this would negatively affect the implementation of ORT.

Igor was also alarmed with the decision of the Fund in three years to significantly reduce the funding for ORT programs in Ukraine. He urged Mr. Kazatchkin to make sure that Ukrainian government would continue the provision of the Methadone and Buprenorphine to all patients who need them.

The active steps of the harm reduction activists achieved positive results. After the meeting of Michel Kazatchkine with the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov the official web-portal of Ukrainian government reported that Ukraine will continue implementing the substitution therapy programs in a large scale as a mean of HIV prevention.

Ségou Villages: Cruising the River Niger for Internet Literacy

Claire Ulrich — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:12:27 +0000

The Ségou Villages Connection project in Mali is taking an interesting turn, in partnership with a UNESCO heritage preservation program [fr]. Boukary Konaté, a 2011 Rising Voices grantee, is currently cruising up the Niger river aboard a traditional Malian barge, docking every day in a new village to train school children and villagers to use the Internet.

The UNESCO Loire-Niger programme barge

The Loire-Niger Rivers programme [fr] supported by UNESCO-France and the Pays de Loire Regional Council, documents and preserves the Niger river cultural heritage, involving local fishermen and villagers. A 2-week tour of the villages, aboard a traditional Malian barge has been organised to show a traveling photo exhibition. The Ségou Villages Connection was invited to join the team to expand this outreach initiative by training school children to the Internet along the way. Boukary Konaté is currently aboard the ship cruising upstream and is posting photos and dispatches about this experience.

In Sekoro, a fishermen village, capital of the former Bamana kingdom, no one had ever heard of the Internet or seen a computer. Besides, there is no electricity. Boukary Konaté taught the children how to search the Web on his solar-energy powered laptop and smartphone. “They were baffled by the fact that you can access knowledge without traveling: it travels to your place, via the Internet” he says. One little girl (pictured below) did not hesitate for a second when asked what she wanted information about: “C.A.N.” (The Africa soccer cup 2012).

A primary school girl hits the enter key for the first time, in Sekoro, Mali

Further up the Niger, in the regional capital Segou, Boukary Konaté gave a presentation on the knowledge and collaboration opportunities given by the Internet in the Bandjougou Bouaré high school, in front of more than a hundred students. Students were then asked to search Google themselves, on a personal topic of interest. Here are a few queries, saved by Boukary: “How to find the square root of prime numbers”, 'The life and deeds of Keita, king of the Mandingo empire“, “Books written by Malian writer Issa Baba Traoré“; “Biography of Shaka Zulu, bravest warrior of South Africa.” “(Pop star) Rihanna“. And one of the teachers searched for TV series “Prison Break“.

Boukary coaching high school students in Ségou to search the Web

Drawing from past training sessions in the Ségou district organised by Ségou Villages Connection, Boukary travels equipped with a mobile internet USB drive to access the Web, and a portable solar-cell to charge his laptop and smartphone. He finds this a lightweight and quite satisfactory solution to connect in remote places, and even blogs on the river Niger! You can follow Boukary Konaté's daily updates and pictures on Facebook.

Blogging on the deck of the boat, on the Niger River

All pictures by Boukary Konaté and team, hosted on Briconcella's account, reproduced with permission under a Creative Commons License.

Nomad Green: Concerns On Ulaanbaatar

Rezwan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:52:26 +0000

The environmental citizen journalists of Nomad Green are voicing their opinions on issues surrounding the degrading environment in Mongolia. The articles are originally posted in Mongolian language and some of them are being translated in Chinese and English.

City University student Munkhtsatsral. B reports (translated by Bolorerdene) that Global warming started to affect in Mongolia since 1970 and these natural disasters occur most in Mongolia:

Wildfires: 15% of Mongolia's landscape consists of forests which are prone to wildfires. In 1998, 132 wildfires occured.

Dust storms and Blizzards: In 1996-1997 there was a blizzard that caused 600000 cattle to freeze and affected 20% of Mongolia’s land.

Drought: One-fourth of Mongolia becomes affected by drought in every 2 or 3 years.

And also there is heavy rainfall and flood.

Traditional dwellings in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, are responsible for 60% of the city's air pollution during the long winter months. Image by Andrew Cullen. Copyright Demotix.

Bulgantsetseg.N. argues that the Mongolian dwelling Ger (Yurt) is a traditional habitat which is strongly related to the Mongolian cultural features, living condition, weather condition and other reasons. Although it is the main cause of pollution in the capital Ulaanbaatar, they can be used in countryside.

Mongol ger is not just a habitat that poor people live in. it looks like a simple consumption in our everyday life, but it is not as simple as it is seen. This is real historical evidence that shows Mongolian traditional culture in early days. That is why Mongol ger should be used for people like herders in countryside, so that Mongol ger won’t lose essential things itself.

Bolorerdene E points out that the increase in pollution in Ulaanbaatar in the last 10 years is severe, not only because of air pollution. Bolorerdene comments:

Every year there’s 600 thousand meter cube trash, 25% is paper, 17% organic, 34% is plastic, can, bottles, and ash. The 20% of dangerous trash is exposed and without any attention, so the government should take an immediate move against this.

Urantuya.M. talks about citizens' consciousness regarding proper disposal of garbage and using fumeless fuel for a greener environment.

Bayarmaa.J. draws attention to another problem in Ulaanbaatar:

The detergent facility of Ulaanbaatar must filter the dirty water before throw water out to the Tuul River; they just throw water with chemical toxic substance out to the Tuul River straight away because of technical error for the last years. The fishes in Tuul River have been destroyed by big number by people’s wrong action.

Read the Nomad Green website for more updates.

REPACTED: Looking Back And Learning From The Past

Rezwan — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:57:58 +0000

The former Rising Voices grantee REPACTED trained displaced Kenyans (during the 2007 election violence) living in the camps how to tell their own stories online so that their ordeal is not forgotten. They use magnet theater to sensitize and mobilize people and induce behavioral change on certain issues like AIDS. According to a retrospective post in their blog:

More than 1,200 Kenyans reportedly killed, thousands more injured and over 300,000 people displaced and around 42,000 houses and many businesses ending up being looted or destroyed, Bombing, abductions and killing of innocent people by the ragtag militia called Al-shabab kind of became a daily phenomena thereby leading Kenya to taking radical decision in trying to wipe out and end this menace of the al-shabab.

Kenyan men brandish their weapons after Kenya's questionable December 2007 election. Image by Daniel McCabe. Copyright Demotix

This year Kenya's next election will be held. Political stability can steady Kenya's turbulent growth. REPACTED (Rapid Effective Participatory Action in community Theater Education and Development) is now on a mission to make Kenyans learn from the past and not to repeat the same mistakes:

REPACTED has in last few months been engaged in civic education program dubbed ”TUFANYE SOTE BIDII NDIO WAJIBU WETU” a line borrowed from the Kenyan national anthem. The sole aim of the program which is being funded by UNDP Amkeni Wa Kenya is to sensitize Kenyans on their role and holistic participation in constitutional matters pertaining to DEVOLUTION. REPACTED intends to make sure that by the time Kenyans will be going to the ballot box they will have been empowered constitutionally.

Image courtesy REPACTED

Last April, REPACTED hosted a beauty pageant for the high school students of Kenya to provide them a forum to enable them discuss issues affecting their sexual lives. The theme of the event was “Using beauty as a source of inspiration towards behavioral change”.

You can get more updates in their blog and Facebook account.

Rising Voices Year in Review 2011

Eddie Avila — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:06:58 +0000

The year started out with news from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region about citizen uprisings that would alter the course of history throughout this part of the world. The turn of events in Egypt, in particular, hit close to home with Rising Voices because of our close connection to our three grantee projects in Cairo and in Upper Egypt. Obviously some of the projects were placed on hold during this uncertain time, but many of the project leaders and participants took to citizen media as a way to express their thoughts and feelings about the revolution. In addition, the day before the infamous internet shut-down by the government, we also heard from one of the project leaders via Skype, who spoke about her participation in the citizen action.

Podcast with Nesma by risingvoices

Digital Natives with a Cause?

In early February, Rising Voices partnered with HIVOS and the Centre for Internet and Society to organize the Latin America and the Caribbean regional workshop of the Digital Natives with a Cause? project. The workshop held on February 8-10, 2011 in Santiago, Chile invited 23 young people actively using technology in their daily lives for social action and creative expression to share their experiences with others from their region.

Digital AlterNatives book

Fifteen countries from the region were represented at the workshop, which was the third in a series of regional events that took also place in Tapei and Johannesburg in 2010. The information compiled from all three of the workshops helped form the basis of the final book project “Digital AlterNatives” that was released in September 2011. This book features essays from the workshop participants, facilitators, and others who are working in this space. You can download the entire book here.

Welcoming Newest Grantees

Our first global-wide open call for microgrant proposals in nearly two years yielded an unprecedented level of interest. Rising Voices received more than 750 applications from more than 90 countries from individuals and organizations interested in implementing a citizen media outreach project in their local community. Reading through every proposal each filled with creative ideas, the selection committee recognized the ongoing need in these communities and it was a difficult, yet thorough process to select five projects.

In early March, we announced the five selected projects:

Youth leaders and children in the neighborhood of Enterramento in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau.

We plan to launch the open call for the next round of microgrant proposals in early 2012.

Blogging Positively

Interest in the Blogging Positively working group continued in 2011 with members of the Global Voices Lingua community that helped with the translation of the e-guide into Swahili and Russian. In addition, several blog posts highlighting the use of citizen media in discussing HIV/AIDS, as well as interviews with bloggers were featured on Rising Voices in 2011. We closed out the year with the commemoration of World AIDS Day in December 1 by promoting the use of the hashtag #BlogPos (blogging positively).

Partnerships

Over the course of 2011, Rising Voices has been reaching out to organizations and individuals that share our mission, and often times these connections result in concrete collaborations to help spread the reach of citizen media in underrepresented communities. One of these partnerships took place in April 2011 with the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. As part of their Human Rights Defenders Initiative, Rising Voices was invited to organize a panel of individuals that have been using citizen media to advance the cause of women's rights around the world. We invited Fatma Emam from the RV grantee project Exploring Taboos and Jasmeen Patheja, founder of the Blank Noise project in India to take part in the event. The attendees of the conference “Religion, Belief, and Women's Rights” came primarily from Sub-Saharan Africa, the MENA region, and Southeast Asia, and were able to hear firsthand experiences and learn how they might be able to use citizen media to further their human rights work. Following the panel, there was a hands-on session to ask specific questions about using citizen media.

Fatma Emam from the project Exploring Taboos project with Former President Jimmy Carter

Underrepresented Languages

Based on some of our experiences in Bolivia of using citizen digital media to promote the use of underrepresented languages on the web, we knew that this type of activity was much more widespread. Over the past year, we've featured a wide range of initiatives using blogs, podcasts, video blogs, Twitter, and Facebook to encourage current speakers, as well as the next generation of speakers to create their own content and connect with others from these language communities. We've featured projects in languages such as Warlpiri, Cherokee, Welsh, Quechua, Chakma, and Nishnaabe.

To bring some of these practitioners together and learn from their experiences, Rising Voices teamed up with the Indigenous Tweets project and New Tactics in Human Rights to organize a week-long online dialogue where participants could share their stories about their work, present some of the challenges they have faced, and help provide some tips for others wishing to embark in the field of language revitalization and citizen media. The entire dialogue is documented on the New Tactics website, and there are plans to collect the information and create an e-guide with the ideas, tips, and suggestions.

Conferences

Invitations to RV grantee projects are frequent occurrences at global conferences, and these events are great opportunities to share their experiences with implementing a citizen media outreach project. For example, project coordinator Jamila Venturini and participants Dener Guedes Mendonça and Soraia Rodrigues de Amorim from the Friends of Januária were invited to present at the annual Cultura Digital Forum held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. From the same project, project coordinator Amanda Rossi attended the Mozilla Festival held in London. A representative from each of the three Rising Voices projects in Egypt was invited to attend the third Arab Bloggers Meeting held in Tunisia.

Getting Connected in Bolivia

To close out the year, Rising Voices organized the first gathering of its kind in Bolivia with the support of HIVOS and IBIS. The idea of the three-day event called “Conectándonos” (Getting Connected) was to bring together emerging bloggers and creators of citizen media from underrepresented communities and those working closely with these groups, as a way to begin to build a national network of technical assistance and support. Some of these communities targeted were indigenous groups, those from rural communities, the LGBT community in Bolivia, Afro-Bolivians, and women from lower socio-economic sectors of society. Through hands-on workshops, presentations, and group activities where participants came up with a citizen media outreach project for their local community, the 35 participants from across the country met in Cochabamba, Bolivia to take part in the event. Five experienced Bolivian bloggers also took part as workshop facilitators acting as supportive mentors for the participants, and communication continues to carry on through a Facebook group.

Conectándonos poster

There was also an event open to the general public that stressed the need for a more representative Bolivian digital space with greater participation from all of these communities. Presentations and panel discussions introduced the attendees to some of these initiatives that are attempting to bridge the digital divide in citizen digital media. The three-day workshop and public event was held at the mARTadero project, a cultural arts space located in South Cochabamba. Recaps of the three days can be found on Rising Voices, and there are plans to replicate the event in Ecuador in mid-2012.

Thank you

We would like to thank the entire Rising Voices community, including our grantees that work especially hard to bring the benefits from citizen media to their local communities. We would also like to thank our volunteer authors that have taken the time to share with our readers interesting happenings from the world of citizen media. Finally, this work would not be possible without the interest expressed by our readers, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and those who support our mission of working towards a global online space much more representative with greater participation by all.

Ukraine: The Role of the ASTAU Information Manager

Maryna Reshetnyak — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:14:46 +0000

Svetlana Sharamok is an information manager for the Association of Substitution Treatment Advocates of Ukraine (ASTAU), of which the Rising Voices grantee project the Drop-In Center is a member. The ASTAU has also been a driving force behind many of the citizen media initiatives that we have been featuring over the past year. Svetlana recently started her position with ASTAU in late 2011. With her background in journalism, she is responsible for updating their website, Facebook account, and for promoting the work of ASTAU among the Ukrainian public. In this email interview with Rising Voices, she talks about herself, her job in the association, and her future plans for using citizen media to raise awareness about her organization and the people they serve.

Svetlana Sharamok, information manager for ASTAU

Rising Voices: Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

Svetlana Sharamok: I am young, beautiful, and happy. And I worked as a journalist before. I like to create and implement various social projects, to do something that makes people to look at the ordinary things from a new perspective, such as garbage or asphalt or to place gloves and hats on the trees to keep them warm in the winter. I also adore traveling.

RV: How did you join the Association and what do you do as the information manager?

SS: Working as a journalist, I never thought that I would join the Association, I did not even know about its existence. When I came to meet with Olga [Olga Beliayeva, the head of the Association] and when I saw my portrait published in the ‘Konoplianaya Pravda’ [newsletter, published by the Association], I realized that perhaps somehow I would work there. But it has happened much faster than I could even imagine. I started to work in the Association just for a few months, but I was able to realize that there is no such word as ‘impossible,’ we can do everything, if we do not know something – we can learn. Perhaps this philosophy is what I like the most in my work.

I must stay in touch with the members of the Association, update the Facebook page of the Association, update the news page on the web-site – these are my main job responsibilities. I have a lot of work to do, but it is diverse and interesting. Now I often go to the substitution therapy sites, meet the doctors, nurses, patients, and I have a feeling that soon I will meet the police as well. Now, before the elections of the Board of the Association, I met with many of the activists and the regional representatives.

RV: Could you please describe your typical working day?

SS: I am an information manager. For example, today on my agenda I must call approximately 80 members of the association meaning that about 50 people will wish something good for me, and I am waiting until all these wishes will come true. Some people will share with me the news that their child went to school, somebody will tell me that they have found a job, some members are preparing to be on the TV talk show about drugs. Often I call a person for the first time, but I have a feeling that I am talking to my old friend.

In the morning, I often visit ORT sites and meet with doctors and the patients. The patients are in a hurry, they need to take the medication and then to run to their jobs. Some people are coming to the sites with their relatives, not because they force them to have the treatment, but just to protect them from the police, but this does not always help.

RV: What are your future plans as an information manager of ASTAU?

SS: I would like to produce a short documentary about people who take part in the substitution therapy. I do not understand why there is so much discussion about the opiate replacement therapy (ORT), I often meet these people and they more look like users of insulin than users of drugs, but of course you can find various personalities… My other plan is to increase the internet activism of the bloggers – ORT patients both on the Facebook and our web-site as I believe that their experience is interesting and useful.

Svetlana Sharamok, information manager for ASTAU

RV: How you would describe the members of the association?

SS: Once I was asked how I would describe a former drug addict. I thought much before answering this question. Really, who are the patients of the substitution therapy? They do not look like a community of bikers, or bicyclists or a community of marijuana lovers. These are people with various life stories and from various professional backgrounds. Igor makes documentaries about the lives of women, the family of Sergey and Lena works at a charity fund and helps other people to reduce the harm from drug usage. Eugene is a pharmacist; Olga is a director of the charity fund. Life is life and it does not give any credit to people who used to take drugs.

RV: What do you think the Association does for its members? How does it helps them?

SS: For some people, the Association is their life. Sometimes you call such people and hear about how they fight for the continuity of treatment [availability of Methadone in other medical establishments], and then in a few days you see the news that in this particular town the first patients received the medicine in the hospital. Some people have joined the Association just to know where to go and who they should address when they need assistance. We are a sort of buffer between medical personnel, health care officials, and people who receive the substitution therapy or just want to start receiving it.

Russia: Global Protests At Russian Embassies Mark World AIDS Day

Maryna Reshetnyak — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:48:44 +0000

Recently the activists of the Association of Substitution Treatment Advocates of Ukraine (ASTAU) posted an overview of the latest events marking the World AIDS Day all over the globe. The major highlight of the analysis was the rallies at the Russian Embassies around the world against the brutal and cruel treatment of people living with drug addiction in Russia. The protests took place in London, Stockholm, Berlin, Bucharest, New York, Sidney, Canberra, Barcelona, Berlin, Toronto, Mexico and Tbilisi. The demonstrations were facilitated by the International Network of People who Used Drugs (INPUD) and a few other non-profit organizations. Details of the Russian Embassy Protest called “Shame, Russia, Shame” were covered at the special blog dedicated to the event. A big report was also published on the INPUD web-page.

The Russian Embassy Protest was announced in the middle of November when INPUD published the appeal to the Russian Government arguing for changing the attitude towards drug users and the harm reduction programs such as needle exchange and opiate replacement therapy (ORT). The appeal was republished by the ASTAU web-resources as a sign of solidarity with the Russian peers.

The appeal stated that the current treatment of drug users by the Russian government was unjustified and cruel which led to thousands of unnecessary deaths. Unwillingness of the government to legalize of the needle exchange and ORT programs made unavailable to millions of people the services which could help them to attain ‘the highest possible level of health’.

According to INPUD the Russian government ignores the international scientific opinion concerning the influence of such program on the reduction of spread of HIV/AIDS among injection drugs users as since 2005 main ORT medications Methadone and Buprenorphine have been included in the List of Essential Medicines of the World Health Organization. So, availability of these medications is a part of essential human rights.

The INPUD Appeal contained statistics describing the situation with spread of HIV/AIDS among Russian drug users. According to INPUD there are about 5 million people who use drugs in the country, 1,7 million out of them are opiate injection drugs users; out of this number 37,2% are HIV positive, and in some regions this rate is as high as 75%. According to official data about 80% of HIV infection from 1987 to 2008 is associated with injection of drugs. Main way of infecting is use of contaminated syringes and needles. The source of almost 60% of newly identified HIV cases in 2010 was contaminated equipment.

In the same time, only a few needle exchange programs exists in the country. They are run by small NGOs and do not cover all needs. The Russian government does not support such programs as, according the Russian Minister of Health Care, the provision of the sterile needles and syringes would stimulate the society to be more tolerant to the drug users which is against the Russian law, INPUD reported.

INPUD stated that despite of the recommendation of many respected international organizations the harm reduction programs which allow significant reduction of injection use of drugs such as ORT is still illegal. Moreover, people who advocate such programs are officially considered criminals. The legal status of the needle exchange programs is not clear as well, as all harm reduction programs are viewed by current Russian government as a promotion of drugs.

Use of any drug in Russian is considered to be a crime and new stricter laws which are currently considered by the Russian law makers would allow a criminal prosecution of every drugs user. INPUD reports that this would marginalize people living with drug addiction even more and increase the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country.

INPUD activist urged the Russian government to start the harm reduction programs aimed at medicating of the spread of HIV/AIDS such as ORT and needle exchange, cease the criminal responsibility for use of drugs, provide Anti-Retroviral Therapy for HIV positive drug users, stop discrimination of people who use drugs and respect their human rights, stop persecution of harm reduction activists and involve the people who use drugs in developing of the policies aimed on improvement of their lives.

Photo by Anton Belitskiy, “Ridus” agency of citizens’ journalism, www.ridus.ru

In Russia itself on December 1, 2011 the non-government organization “Patients’ Cotrol” organized an unauthorized rally next to the building of the Ministry of Health Care urging for more attention to the problems of HIV treatment in Russia. The activists brought to the entrance of the Ministry a few symbolic coffins, a small brass band played funeral march. The rally meant to make the health care officials to understand that absence of adequate treatment of HIV in particular lack of anti-retroviral medications led to many unnecessary deaths. “Patients’ Control” and ‘Ridus” agency reported that some of the participants of the rally were arrested by Russian police.

Photo by Anton Belitskiy, “Ridus” agency of citizens’ journalism, www.ridus.ru

Nomad Green: More Awareness On Preserving The environment Required

Rezwan — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:12:59 +0000

Deforestation, rapid urbanization, exploiting natural resources, deteriorating air quality are some the threats on environment Mongolia face these days. The citizen journalists of Nomad Green, the Rising Voices Grantee in Mongolia are writing about these issue raising concerns and providing suggestions to stop degradation of the environment.

Plastic surgery department freshman student Byambadolgor M. opines that Mongolians should stop littering and start caring for the environment. Movie Drama sophomore student Munkhtsatsral B describes:

There are 200 people cleaning Ulaanbaatar everyday but there are 2000 people throwing their rubbish in outside not even put in a trash can. [..] I am ashamed for throwing garbage. I am feeling ashamed from our country, our citizens and myself.

Wildlife in Gobi Desert, Mongolia. Image by Julie Laurant. CC BY-NC-ND.

NBB university junior year student Mungunshagai N. informs that there are five kinds of endangered mammals in Mongolia - Gobi bear, wild camel, leopard wild sheep, Mongolian antelope and musk deer. They are threatened by the change in environment and poaching of the hunters and everybody has to try hard to save them. Budragchaa S. takes an interview of Mr. Erdenebayar, the manager of “Gobi Bear” NGO, who says:

There were over 30 Gobi bears in 1960-1970 and the number decreased to 25 during 1980-1990. Its number has been decreasing year by year. [..] only 12 number of the animal remains (now).

Mr. BatsaiKhan, Zoologist. Image courtesy Nomad Green

Mongoloo translated another interview with Mr. Batsaikhan, a zoologist. He says:

If Steppe wolf called as “Antelope’s white” become extinct, the natural system of recovering and treating itself would be collapsed.

Russian Language department freshman student Tuul D reminds that grass and plants are Mongolian steppe’s real wealth. But desertification is decreasing the grazing lands and the plants are dying. Another cause of degradation of grasslands and rivers are gold mining by amateur gold miners aka Ninjas. These people dig dirt, live as outlaws and seek gold from old/used mining fields.

Bathishig Sh. from “Siti Institute” University tells that Mongolia has 3811 lakes, 7000 springs, 3500 rivers, 187 glaciers and 139 underground water resources. The water on surface are being destroyed for some people's own benefit. Bathishig tells:

Even animal drinks water by not destroying or making dirty, so we have to consider it. Don’t we have consciousness differentiating us from animals?

Journalist Enkhjargal. Ch. draws attention to the growing air pollution in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar. The government is taking steps to force use of less environmentally damaging fuel for heating, thus reducing 50% of the present pollution. However more awareness among population in this regards is required.

Pearly Jacob, a freelance journalist, narrates how Mongolia is facing the challenge of providing equal access for the disabled.

Shiliin Bogda, Between Dariganga and Erdenetsagaan, Photo by Otgoo

One of the most active citizens’ journalists of Nomad Green is Ms. Bor. She reports:

Approximately 10 Licenses to explore and operate radioactive mineral resources in all soums (districts) of Sukhbaatar except Munkhhaan and Tumentsogt soums were issued by Government of Mongolia. Exploring and operating operations will be run in 1 million hectare land or 12% of total area of Sukhbaatar province. It is a deliberate devastation.

Architecture freshman student Enkhbayar Erdene-ochir reminds:

If we continuously doing these damages to our nature, we will be getting closer and closer to the time when we regret for (absence of our) beautiful nature.

EWAMT: The Goal of Teaching 200 Yemeni Women to Blog

Eddie Avila — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:18:07 +0000

Rising Voices note: The following is a republication of a post written by Ghaida'a al-Absi about the completion of the Rising Voices grantee project in Yemen and their goal to teach 200 Yemeni women to blog despite the challenges.

The first post in the Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques - Yemen (EWAMT) blog was about the “Ignorance of Blogging in Yemen,” which was true in 2009 at the beginning of implementing the EWAMT project. However, blogging has now become more popular in Yemen. We won't say that it is because of our initiative, but also because of many other youths who have spread these techniques. Some of these youth were trainees in one of our EWAMT sessions. Now I can say that someone who may not have a blog at least he/she knows what does the word means. Here, I will talk about our journey with EWAMT whose mission was to spread the notion of blogging to 200 young Yemeni women. Here, we are finalizing our project with the pride of what we have done as team, and with appreciation to Rising Voices for giving us the opportunity.

We still remember our first training on May 20, 2009, and how hard it was to organize the posters, brochures, coffee breaks, folders with notes, and the search for an inexpensive computer lab, etc. The first step is always the hardest to make, but once we started, we felt enthusiastic to finish our mission. Then we received many letters from local NGOs nominating their female employees to the blogging workshops.

EWAMT also conducted a workshop in the city of Ta'izz, in partnership with the National Culture Center for Youth. Ta'izz is located 225-km away from the capital, Sana'a. It is very well-known in Yemen as the Dreamer city, and it is where the Yemeni revolution started, so it is also known now as the revolutionary city.

I participated in training organized by NDI in July 2011 about “Good Citizen Journalistic Practices“. In this training, we came out with the most important ethics that any citizen media activist or blogger should have. I have transmitted this knowledge to my trainees later.

Another fact of life is that no success is without obstacles or challenges. We went through many critical challenges that made us very frustrated. One of the most overwhelming obstacles was the electricity cutting, and the slow speed in Internet connectivity. In addition, we could not rent another lab with a generator because it was too expensive for us. So we stuck with the lab we had rented before at the beginning of the project from All Girls Society for Development, but because of the electricity problem we had to delay part of our workshop so many times. The second challenge was for me as the implementer of the project. We were implementing EWAMT project under the umbrella of Hand in Hand initiative. This initiative broke apart, and I founded another team and initiative called Kefiaia, which means “enough' in Arabic.

The EWAMT workshops were not only about technical issues of blogging, but also were about exploring, discussing, and raising awareness about issues had being rarely talked about in the public sphere because of the conservativeness of the Yemeni society, and sometimes because of the fear from the Yemeni intelligence would arrest anyone who expresses his/her discontent about the Yemeni regime.

The Yemeni revolution started on February 2011, and it was not a surprise for us. Most of the people were enraged about the Yemeni government, and when Tunisia started the revolution series, it encouraged the Yemenis to break their silence and demonstrate peacefully. Most of the Yemenis are very well armed (Yemen's Weapons Culture), but they left their weapons at home and went to demonstrate; to prove to the whole world their pacifism. The revolution has two sides effects. The positive side is that it heightened awareness among people, both politically and socially. Moreover, it also gave us hope that one day we will see a new, developed Yemen. At the level of EWAMT project, many of women blogged about the revolution from their perspective. The negative side that a lot of people lost their jobs because many foreign organizations and companies left Yemen due to the continuous threats of the Yemeni regime to drag the country into civil war. Furthermore, as a kind of punishment, the Yemeni government had cut the electricity for 23 hours a day, so we had only one hour to charge our electronic devices in order to do the essential work. In this situation, it was almost impossible to finish training the last 20 women.

The revolution lasted for more than 10 months and it is still going on. During all that time, we severely suffered from a shortage of electricity, water, and fuel. We stopped the EWAMT workshops for many months, and then we reached a solution as to how to finish our work under these hardships. We bought two additional batteries for laptops and two internet USB modems. Once a week, I trained two women in my house by using the laptops and the internet USBs or sometimes we went to cafes that had generators and internet connectivity. Each week or sometimes every two weeks, we trained from two to three women. In this way we finished our ultimate goal to train 200 Yemeni women in blogging.