In recent years, Ukraine has seen the most severe HIV/AIDS epidemic in Europe and Eurasia, with an estimated 440,000 Ukrainians currently living with HIV/AIDS. While general awareness of HIV is common among the Ukrainian population, stigma and discrimination against HIV-positive individuals remains pervasive, as do behaviors that put individuals at greater risk of transmitting the virus.
From 2006 to 2008, the USAID-funded Ukrainian Media Partnership to Combat HIV/AIDS (UMP) collaborated with dozens of regional and national media outlets, private companies, government ministries, and nongovernmental entities and trained over 180 journalists to raise awareness and reduce stigma associated with those living with the virus. Through public service announcements, radio programs, journalism trainings, events, and press clubs, UMP reached out to the Ukrainian public on the importance of healthy sexual behaviors and the theme that “HIV Affects Everyone.”
With the expertise of IREX’s Ukrainian partner, Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS (TPAA), UMP trained journalists on accurate, non-discriminatory reporting on HIV/AIDS. Recognizing the importance journalists can play in shaping public opinion, UMP Program Manager Kostya Ryzhkov recruited Anna Grekova, Senior PR Specialist for the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH), as a trainer. Anna’s candid discussion about her HIV-positive status brought an invaluable and personal perspective to the trainings. Journalist participants consistently reported that meeting such a highly accomplished HIV-positive individual was an eye-opening experience that highlighted the consequences that careless reporting can have for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Expressing her hopes for the lasting effect of these trainings, Anna said, “It is vital that journalists in Ukraine understand how to write in a sensitive, nondiscriminatory way about HIV and PLWH. It is my hope that they will continue to write about HIV so that people understand the challenges HIV-positive people face in their daily lives, and react with sensitivity and compassion.”
Reaching out to Ukrainians directly, UMP organized several “StopAIDS” public service announcement (PSA) campaigns to show Ukrainians how HIV can affect anyone, and how individuals can and should take responsibility for protecting themselves and those whom they love. The most recent PSA campaign – made possible through a cross-sector partnership with Sanoma Magazines Ukraine, MTV Ukraine, and the Elena Franchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation – featured prominent Ukrainian athletes and musicians promoting safe sexual behavior.
Anna Grekova expressed her appreciation for an earlier wave of ads in the “StopAIDS” campaign that focused on the relevance of HIV/AIDS to average Ukrainians, and how HIV-positive individuals are no different than anyone else. “As an HIV-positive individual, I feel that these ads truly show how people living with HIV are regular people, and how anyone can be affected by HIV. They should be shown in every region of Ukraine and on every channel. They show how important it is for everyone to think about HIV, and how there is nothing wrong with a person living with HIV/AIDS,” Anna said.
In just over two years UMP brought together over 50 private, public, and nongovernmental partners and leveraged over $5,000,000 in in-kind support from media outlets and advertising companies (to air and display the PSA campaigns throughout the country). UMP helped set the stage for a social environment in which HIV can be more openly discussed, education about HIV can be advanced, and safe behaviors can be encouraged and made more commonplace. In this setting, there is greater hope that the growing tide of the HIV epidemic in Ukraine may be curbed.
Within the scope of UMP, IREX provided organizational support to TPAA in Ukraine in building its administrative capacity to implement, evaluate and report on large-scale projects, administer contracts, and manage financial expenditures. IREX also provided guidance on project implementation and reporting to measure progress.
