aparipovic@partnershipsinhealth.ba
Country programme coordinator
adikolasevic@partnershipsinhealth.ba
Training coordinator
FPH program facts
WESTERN BALKANS PROGRAMME TO FIGHT HIV/AIDS
FACT SHEET
BACKGROUND
For the past 20 years, HIV/AIDS has grown into one of the most destructive epidemics that humankind has faced and will continue to face if preventative steps are not taken. While the disease has devastated the social and economic development of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, its impact is beginning to affect regions outside Africa. The Western Balkans is one region in which current social and economic transitions make their population particularly vulnerable to HIV. These transitions may cause or result in an individual or a population to take certain actions (e.g. injecting drug use, commercial sex work) that they would not otherwise take. In doing so, they place themselves at higher risk to HIV infection. Although current HIV prevalence rates are low in this region, the window of opportunity for prevention is short and the time to act is now.
In 2003, with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Project HOPE launched the three-year Western Balkans Programme to Fight HIV/AIDS, which began in January 2004.
PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES
• Albania
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Croatia
• The UN Administered Province of Kosovo
• The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
• Serbia and Montenegro
PARTNERS
• Fondation PH –Partnerships in health (formerly Project HOPE Switzerland)
Health development network with extensive health experience in the Western Balkans.
• National health sector
Authorities in the areas of prevention, diagnosis and support (i.e. infectious disease specialists, primary health care sector).
• NGO Sector
NGOs responsible for outreach and for implementing the programme’s prevention, care and support networks.
• Health institutions in Europe
Institutions with expertise in the area of HIV/AIDS for technical assistance and training.
PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT GOAL
• To contain the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Balkans; and
• To build the capacity of countries to prevent current conditions from escalating into major HIV/AIDS epidemics.
The programme consists of two major components: prevention, which focuses on the work of NGOs with local populations; and care and support, which focuses on building the capacity of clinical services and the NGO support network.
Prevention:
• Work with high-risk groups of all ages, such as injecting drug users (IDUs), commercial sex-workers (CSWs), Roma populations and migrant workers, in reducing their HIV vulnerabilities by mitigating negative socio-economic and health impacts related to HIV/AIDS;
• Establish quality voluntary counselling and confidential testing (VCCT) centres and programmes and provide information to public and target groups;
• Establish peer support groups (e.g. IDUs, People Living with HIV/AIDS [PWHAs]) to educate and empower local community and targeted hard-to-reach populations; and
• Monitor and evaluate implemented projects to measure their impact and to improve upon the quality of services.
Care and Support:
• Enhance the clinical skills of infectious disease specialists (IDS) to provide diagnosis and treatment of PWHAs;
• Strengthen primary health care provider's ability to recognize warning signs, refer patients to specialists and provide care and support without discrimination;
• Provide training in the form of HIV/AIDS education and/or training of trainers (TOT) workshops to both prevent and mitigate the negative consequences;
• Educate health care workers on infection prevention and work place safety issues to reduce transmission in the sector; and
• Link the clinical services to the community care and support network to strengthen continuity of care and create an enabling environment to reduce stigma and discrimination.
OVERALL OBJECTIVES
• To bring together both national governmental organizations and NGOs to identify, prevent and mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS in each country. The Programme’s country offices are establishing links between NGOs on the ground and authorities at the national level.
• To establish a broader regional perspective in addressing HIV/AIDS in the Western Balkans region. Programme activities are bringing together specialists, health care providers and NGOs for knowledge-sharing and information/experiential exchange to collaborate at all levels.
• To achieve Goal 6 and Goal 8 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (www.un.org/millenniumgoals/). The Programme is assisting the countries in developing partnerships for development (Goal 8), as well as combating HIV/AIDS (Goal 6).
Fondation PH
Partnerships in Health
60, route des Coudres
CH-1298, Céligny
Tel. +41-22-776-7887
Fax. +41-22-776-7927
Western Balkans Programme to Fight HIV/AIDS
Regional Programme Office
www.balkans-fight-hiv.org
Nikola Trimpare 18/1-5
1000 Skopje
Macedonia
Tel. +389-2-312-0197
Fax. +389-2-312-5229