In observance of World AIDS Day, December 1, the IREX community shares its commitment and its vision—through World AIDS Day special activities as well as new and reinvigorated year-round initiatives [10]—to combating HIV/AIDS.
A Growing Epidemic
In its 2004 AIDS Epidemic Update, UNAIDS reports that the total number of people living with HIV worldwide rose to 39.4 million—its highest level ever—in 2004. The steepest increases took place in East Asia and in Central Asia, a region with a long IREX presence where there were 40% more HIV-infected people in 2004 than in 2002, reflecting a broader increase of over ninefold in less than 10 years. And the epidemic there—as well its victims—is still quite young.
World AIDS Day: IREX Special Activities
Annually around December 1, IREX mobilizes its broad array of programs and its overseas presence to focus on HIV/AIDS. With activities as diverse as Internet chats with HIV-positive persons in isolated regions, online forums for local medical personnel, and special seminars on HIV/AIDS for young people and for the educators who teach them, IREX combats HIV/AIDS with many approaches. Special activities for World AIDS Day 2004 are detailed in the IREX activity list by country. [10]
IREX Combats AIDS Year-Round
Beyond the special attention devoted to World AIDS Day, IREX administers substantial and varied year-round activities to combat HIV/AIDS in many settings, including orphanages, national parliamentary committees, community service organizations, and professional education programs.
Assistance to Russian Orphans Program Combats HIV Abandonment. Russia's epidemic of HIV-positive orphans has been at the forefront of the IREX-administered Assistance to Russian Orphans Program (ARO) [11]. Because Russia's official welfare system often overlooks the needs of children born to HIV-positive mothers, these children are particularly vulnerable to abandonment. ARO has begun to provide pilot grants to regional social workers and medical specialists to avert such abandonments by providing comprehensive care and support services to clinicians, caregivers, and family members.
Volunteer Initiative Engages Community Against HIV/AIDS. The US-Russia Volunteer Initiative [12] fosters community service against HIV/AIDS by sponsoring young Russians and Americans to volunteer abroad for four weeks in NGOs and governmental service centers throughout Russia and the United States. The volunteers have been placed either with organizations committed to HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention or those working to narrow the digital divide through the expansion of information and communication technologies (ICT). A capstone conference will allow Russian and American counterparts to share their experiences, and volunteers will also have the opportunity to compete for small grants to support HIV/AIDS and ICT projects in their own communities after returning home.
Policy Fellows Explore HIV/AIDS Issues and Share Findings. For more than 10 years, fellows of the Contemporary Issues Program (CI), which provides four months of independent policy-oriented research in the United States for Eurasian professionals, have addressed HIV/AIDS, and many of them recently shared their experiences in anniversary alumni reunions, including a Kyiv session dedicated to HIV. And prior to the reunion sessions, ten CI alumni who pursued HIV/AIDS projects returned to the United States to share and exchange perspectives with leading health professionals, US government representatives, scholars, and senior leaders of international organizations.
Russian Parliamentary Working Group Addresses HIV/AIDS Policy. In response to this growing crisis, IREX provides support and contributes resources to the Russian Parliamentary Working Group on AIDS, administered by Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS (TPAA). Funded by USAID, the project has created a high-level coalition of members from the Russian State Duma and Federation Council—with broad membership across legislative committees and political parties—to support the development and strengthening of HIV/AIDS policy formulation in Russia. The Working Group will also act to marshal political parties into a consensus position on politically sensitive issues related to HIV/AIDS, raise awareness and facilitate collaboration among fellow parliamentarians and other officials at the national and local levels, and serve as a bridge to other sectors, including business, civil society, academia, the scientific community, and people living with HIV/AIDS.