AFEW is a Dutch public health NGO that works in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to reduce the impact of HIV among vulnerable populations.

AFEW es una ONG holandesa de salud pública que trabaja en Europa del Este y en Asia Central para reducir el impacto del VIH sobre poblaciones vulnerables.

AFEW est une ONG néerlandaise spécialisée dans la santé publique. Elle travaille en Europe de l’Est et en Asie Centrale pour réduire l’ampleur du SIDA au sein des populations vulnérables.

AIDS Foundation East West (AFEW)

By EECA Interact / AFEW International and the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health & Development (AIGHD).

We are pleased to announce the third scientific workshop on HIV, Hepatitis C and Tuberculosis in Eastern Europe and Central Asia – EECA INTERACT 2022 – to be held on 13-14 December in Riga, Latvia!

EECA INTERACT 2022 will bring together scientists, clinicians, members of civil society, and government officials to tackle topics facing individual countries while building capacity and strengthening research and clinical networks.

We encourage researchers from Eastern and Central Europe, Balkans, Central Asia, and the Baltics to submit abstracts for peer review. There are a limited number of scholarships for the highest scoring abstract presenters to attend the INTERACT workshop in person.

Open call for abstracts: EECA INTERACT Workshop!

We invite researchers to submit abstracts on of the following topics:

Epidemiology, including surveillance and data collection

Access to diagnostics, medicines, and medical products

Basic science and HIV cure, vaccines, and monoclonal antibodies

HIV co-infections, including hepatitis, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections, and (re)emerging pathogens

Paediatrics and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT)

Financing, cost-effectiveness, and impact modelling

Information technology innovations for HIV (MHealth, electronic records, social media)

Community/civil society/stakeholder engagement

Innovative approaches to priority populations that are at risk and underserved

Regulatory, ethical, and research conduct challenges

Structural determinants of HIV vulnerability

Knowledge translation to policy and programming

The online application will be open from 5 August to September 25. Submit your abstract via this form https://eeca-interact.org/submit-abstract/.

There are a limited number of scholarships, preference is given to young investigators (under 35) or less than 5 years out from PhD or MD. Information is available on request via info@eeca-interact.org.

EECA Interact 2022 is organized by AFEW International and the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health & Development (AIGHD).

EECA INTERACT 2022

United Nations Secretary-General
President of the United Nations Human Rights Council
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

President of the European Commission
European Commissioner for Crisis Management
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety

Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

We, the undersigned organisations, call on the United Nations, the European Union, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to jointly support and set up, as a matter of urgency, an uninterrupted supply chain of humanitarian assistance to the affected populations within the country, and to establish safe humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from Ukraine.

On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, targeting several large cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Meriupol and Zhitomir, and bombing neighbourhoods within those areas, inevitably resulting in countless civilian deaths. The escalating war actions are causing tremendous humanitarian crises affecting millions of people. Those staying in cities and villages in Ukraine are in urgent need of warm shelter, food, water, basic medicine and other essential supplies. Additionally, more than 100,000 people have been internally displaced since the invasion began, and the number of displaced people will continue to grow. At the moment, meeting the essential needs of internally displaced people is extremely difficult in Ukraine due to martial law, curfews and threats to the lives of volunteers.

UNHCR estimates that due to the war, up to five million people will flee Ukraine. As of 3 March 2022, one million refugees were estimated to have fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries —including Moldova, Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. As the situation worsens, an estimated four million people may flee Ukraine in the coming weeks and months. We highly appreciate the efforts thus far of governments, international institutions and millions of citizens in European countries — especially those in Moldova, Poland, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary and Lithuania — in organising comprehensive support for all refugees from Ukraine.

What is now urgently needed is the provision of basic, essential health supplies and medication for people in Ukraine, including those internally displaced, by means of revised importation rules and distribution networks. People who belong to vulnerable and discriminated groups — such as people who use drugs, people in prison, gay and other men who have sex with other men, sex workers and trans people — must not be overlooked in these efforts. Notably, Ukraine has the second largest population of people living with HIV, people with tuberculosis and drug-resistant tuberculosis and opioid dependency in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the country has developed successful and progressive harm reduction and treatment programmes, supported by the global community. To sustain those achievements and preserve human life, we ask you to ensure essential provisions including opioid agonist therapy, ARV therapy, and tuberculosis diagnostics and treatments.

Ukraine urgently needs humanitarian corridors supported by intergovernmental and multilateral organisations. On 1 March, the UN General Assembly adopted with overwhelming support (including by the European Union) a resolution demanding “all parties to allow safe and unfettered passage to destinations outside of Ukraine and to facilitate the rapid, safe and unhindered access to humanitarian assistance for those in need in Ukraine, to protect civilians, including humanitarian personnel (...) and to respect human rights.”

Following negotiations between the two sides on 3 March, Ukraine and Russia have agreed tentatively to create humanitarian corridors7 in the worst-affected areas of Ukraine, where civilians are most at risk from the war. But in reality, there is no clarity on how these passages could be implemented.

In line with this, we call on your organisations to:

Urgently establish safe, open and uninterrupted corridors for humanitarian workers and supplies, including essential food and medicine, to reach people in need throughout Ukraine (particularly in cities in eastern, southern and central Ukraine currently under attack).

Create a coordinated and agile system for assessing needs and tracking available services and supplies’ shortages and organising coordinated international response to address it.

Urgently support the establishment of inter-agency safe corridors for the evacuation of all people wishing to leave Ukraine, regardless of nationality, to neighbouring countries.

Organise transport of lifesaving cargo both for internally displaced people in Ukraine and refugees outside the country.

Engage in a sustained and coordinated manner with local and national authorities of neighbouring countries, and of expected destination countries, to ensure:
+ Continued safe entry and passage of people fleeing Ukraine (without the need for visas or other burdensome administrative requirements).
+ Distribution of food, COVID-19 personal protective equipment and medicine, including antiretroviral therapy (ARV) and/or opioid agonist treatment, without discrimination.
+ Safe and uninterrupted circulation of essential food and medicines — including utilisation of the simplified control procedures for the export, transportation and provision of medicinal products containing controlled substances, as recommended by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

Help to ensure the parties to the conflict take the necessary measures to account for protected people, including prisoners of war and detainees.

Apply all efforts to negotiate this issue with both Russian and Ukrainian authorities through all possible channels, to ensure safe and effective humanitarian corridors are established as quickly as possible.

A humanitarian corridor for Ukraine - Joint open letter

Organised by UNAD, IDPC, RRF and AFEW International on behalf of the CSFD.

The Civil Society Forum on Drugs (CSFD) will organise an on-site workshop from 23th to 24th November in Madrid. Since advocacy is an important tool for civil society members to achieve their main goal of influencing public policies, this training workshop will bring together representatives from Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the field of drugs in order to improve their capacities in formulating, implementing and evaluating advocacy actions.

The two-days workshop will be practical, interactive and builds upon the experience and the specific needs of up to 40 participants, which should come from EU member state, EEA, acceding, candidate or potential candidate country and be members of the Civil Society Forum on Drugs or related to one the members’ networks. Workshop language is mostly English. Travel and hotel costs will be covered for all participants, based on a pre-defined application process.

You can check all the information about the training workshop and the selection criteria in the document attached.

To join this event, please fill the registration form before 17th September: https://forms.gle/bgEzVw2oSnyXVFYw9

A final selection of participants will be made until 1st October. If you are selected, we will contact you to manage your trip. If you are not selected, we will inform you as well. A detailed agenda will be sent to selected participants in October.

For further questions, please contact Lola Capdepon at lola.capdepon@unad.org / unad@unad.org

CSFD capacity-building workshop on civil society advocacy

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules), we, the undersigned, express alarm at the increase in the global female prison population by around 100,000 since the adoption of the Rules – which aim to reduce the imprisonment of women – and the continuing discrimination and abuse experienced by women in criminal justice systems.

The number of women in prison is rising at an alarming rate, even though women are typically convicted of low-level non-violent crimes. Women are disproportionately impacted by punitive drug policies and often commit crimes in poverty to keep themselves and their families alive. Many find themselves in prison as a direct result of discrimination.

As a minority in prisons, representing on average 2-9% of national prison populations, women are often not provided with access to programmes and services to support their rehabilitation that address their specific needs and characteristics. There is also a mental health crisis among women in prison, with up to 80% living with an identifiable mental illness, which has been compounded by measures related to preventing and addressing the spread of COVID-19.

Women around the world continue to face threats to their dignity and humanity in detention. They are often unable to access adequate healthcare and are at particularly high risk of sexual assault and humiliation in prison. In some countries, women are even restrained during labour and birth or placed in solitary confinement whilst pregnant or caring for an infant child.

Protect the human rights of women in the criminal justice system - Joint call to action

In August 2020 AFEW International conducted a questionnaire among Civil Society Organisations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to measure the impact of COVID-19 on CSOs in the region. The results of the survey are now published in the report “The impact of COVID-19 on civil society organisations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia”.

The survey has revealed the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions related to the pandemic on CSOs, in terms of the health of their staff members, the way of working and sustainability. Almost half of the respondents confessed that staff of their organisations tested positive for COVID-19, which shows that it had a very personal impact on them. The majority of the respondents experienced a lot of changes in their work, including the introduction of new ways of working, a reduction in face to face meetings, and the need to work from home, which also corresponds with other reports about the impact of Covid-19.

There were also two positive findings. Despite the insecurities caused by the pandemic, CSOs do feel that they will emerge stronger and more agile out of the COVID-19 pandemic; 66% of respondents see positive aspects in remote working. Many admit that their organizations have learned how to be strong as a team and flexible. Their experience in working with key populations has proved useful for dealing with a situation in which everyone is at risk. The survey revealed that CSOs have proved to be resilient and flexible in their way of working during the pandemic, with the majority of them (88%) adding new activities in response to COVID-19, and more than a third adding new target groups into their activities.

The impact of COVID-19 on civil society organisations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Ahead of the UNAIDS Multi-Stakeholder Consultation on 16 September, 33 civil society and community-led organisations working on drug policy and harm reduction are urging the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (UNAIDS PCB) to uphold the rights of people who use drugs and harm reduction in the new UNAIDS Strategy.

This letter includes six key recommendations from our community and sector and we asking UNAIDS PCB to advocate for these at the upcoming Consultation.

Now, more than ever, we need their leadership to be strong, bold and unrelenting in ensuring that key populations, including people who inject drugs, are prioritised in the new UNAIDS Strategy; harm reduction services are available, scaled-up and fully funded to meet the HIV prevention and health needs of people who use drugs wherever needed; communities, including community-led services, and civil society are at the front and centre of the HIV response; and barriers to services, including criminalisation, stigma, discrimination, punitive laws and policies, are removed.

The new UNAIDS strategy will have profound implications - either by compounding or alleviating the political invisibility of people who use drugs. We need them to show a commitment to people who use drugs in your engagement in the Strategy process.

We will not end AIDS if we keep leaving people who inject drugs behind.

Call to uphold the rights of people who use drugs and harm reduction in the new UNAIDS Strategy

 has launched the regional COVID-19 Solidarity Program in the Eastern Partnership countries with the financial support of the European Union and in partnership with People in Need and the Netherlands Helsinki Committee. This project will support community-based organizations to respond to the immediate and longer-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Eastern Partnership countries.

 will support 9 organizations with small grants in the period of October 2020 – September 2021. The maximum amount per grant is 5000 euro.

Projects address the immediate COVID-19 related health and socio-economic needs of Key Populations, and enable them to continue supporting their usual constituents.

Activities respond to a situation that threatens the health, and/or the physical or juridical safety of one or more people from the above target groups or threatens the financial and/or legal situation of an NGO/CBO.

The activity will be used as a tool for local, national and/or international advocacy for preventing similar emergencies occurring in the future.

The activities to relieve an emergency will be immediately implemented and will last no longer than 

or represent the interests and needs of the following groups:   

Applicant is a registered CBO or – if not registered – provides references from partner organisations.

Fill out the form (can be downloaded from here). An application shall be submitted in English or Russian. The deadline for submitting the form is on 

27 September 2020 at 17:00 CET (Amsterdam time)

. All proposals submitted after the deadline will not be reviewed! Decisions will be made within 3 weeks. Funds will be transferred approximately within 14 days after a positive decision.

Send this form to the following email address: 

. Once submitted, you will receive an automated notification.

Wait for the decision of the Selection Commission regarding your application. The review of the applications will be done within 3 weeks after the deadline. The decisions will be announced on 19 October 2020.

If you have questions, please refer them to the above-mentioned email address or to Valeria Fulga: valeria_fulga@AFEW.nl.

More details about the call for applications – here.

Application Form CoV-19 Solidarity Program – download.

COVID-19 solidarity program for key populations in Eastern Partnership countries

 especially because of the 22nd International AIDS Conference ‘Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers’ in Amsterdam. With the focus on EECA, the 

 contributed to the EECA buzz during plenary sessions, panel discussions and the communities’ zone at the conference as well as across the city of Amsterdam through various cultural activities. Together with our partners we did a great job and increased representation from the EECA region from 3,9% to 10,5%, compared to AIDS 2016.

We continued to implement a lot of projects. One of them was “Bridging the Gabs: health and rights for key populations 2.0’, which programs have been executed in 4 countries: Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Ukraine. We piloted an innovative approach in the project ‘Improved TB/HIV prevention & care – Building Models for the Future’, we had a lot of activities in Russia and supported the Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice to deliver services to people who use drugs in Moscow. Also, within the project ‘Fast-track TB/HIV responses for key populations in EECA cities’ we organized study tour to Amsterdam for healthcare professionals, municipal representatives and NGO staff from Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine, and supported 3 training seminars within the Cities Project in Georgia.

Elton John AIDS Foundation Emergency Support Fund

 together with Aidsfonds received funding for 3 years from the Elton John AIDS Foundation to manage the Emergency Support Fund for Key Populations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This is an important Fund for us because nowadays not more than 30% of people living with HIV in EECA can currently access the treatment.

All these results are only a small part of what we have done over the past year. Our goal is to keep the attention to the EECA region and its challenges. Therefore, we will continue to advocate at the international, regional and national levels for support for the key populations at risk for HIV, TB and viral hepatitis.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Right in the spotlight - Annual Report 2018

The title of this report, ‘We Fight, We Hide and We Unite’, reflects the survival strategies we identified amongst resilient harm reduction non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community networks of people who use drugs (PWUD) in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA). This report details our findings from the situation assessment, ‘The Shrinking Space for Civil Society in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Coping strategies amongst resilient harm reduction organisations and community networks in the context of a shrinking space for civil society in Eastern Europe and Central Asia’, conducted in the summer of 2017. This assessment forms a part of the regional approach of the AFEW Network within the ‘Bridging the Gaps: health and rights of key populations’ programme (hereafter, the ‘Bridging the Gaps’ programme), financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands. Furthermore, within this programme, the AFEW Network implements four country programmes, namely, in Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Ukraine.

In EECA, we have observed a diminishing space for civil society organisations (CSOs), perhaps best exemplified by the ‘Foreign Agent Law’ in the Russian Federation. The shrinking civil society space threatens the effectiveness of the response to HIV and other public health issues, particularly as it pertains to the health and rights of key populations. This pillar of the regional approach seeks to build upon progress made and support strategies that work, thereby reclaiming that space for civil society involvement (CSI). In this way, we work towards an effective HIV and public health response that respects the human rights of key populations and the survival of a healthy civil society.

We fight, we hide or we unite: Coping strategies amongst resilient harm reduction organisations and community networks in the context of shrinking space for civil society in Eastern Europe and Central Asia