Ukrainian Media Partnership to Combat HIV/AIDS (UMP)

The Ukrainian Media Partnership to Combat HIV/AIDS (UMP) represented an unprecedented collaboration by Ukraine’s leading media companies to develop a coordinated, cross-platform public awareness campaign on HIV/AIDS.

A USAID-sponsored program, UMP brought an internationally recognized best-practice model of HIV prevention and anti-stigma information campaign to Ukraine. Through public service announcements, radio programs, journalism trainings, events and press clubs, IREX and its partner, Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS (which has now joined forces with Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria), reached out to the Ukrainian public on the importance of healthy sexual behaviors and the idea that HIV affects everyone.

This project is now closed.

Goals

• Improve awareness of HIV/AIDS among the Ukrainian population and specific target groups

• Support the creation of an environment enabling increased awareness, education, policy implementation and behavior modification

• Create visible platform to give a public voice to people living with HIV/AIDS

Background

In recent years, Ukraine has seen the most severe HIV/AIDS epidemics 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.

Project Activities

Increasing Private Sector Participation and Public Information and Education Efforts: UMP partnered with and recruited national and regional media outlets to foster their support and involvement in educating Ukrainian audiences about HIV/AIDS, and leveraging financial support for these campaigns. UMP utilized the influence and expertise of commercial media groups to target a variety of audiences with messages related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ukraine, and reducing stigma and discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Developing and Distributing Targeted HIV/AIDS Messages to Youth and High-risk Groups: Collaboration with diverse media outlets resulted in public service announcements in television, radio, and print media aimed at specific target audiences, through regularly established channels as well as special events and campaigns focused on HIV/AIDS.

Mobilizing and Training Journalists to Improve Quality and Quantity of HIV/AIDS-related Reporting: UMP partner TPAA informed, motivated, and created training and educational opportunities for Ukrainian journalists, editors, and journalism students to strengthen their commitment to reporting on HIV/AIDS-related issues. Trainings, press club meetings and a Media Fellowship Program reinforce the important role that mass media in general and journalists in particular play in educating the public about the epidemic, and ensure accurate, comprehensive, and ongoing coverage of HIV/AIDS, including its growing impact on women, the human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS, and access to ARV treatment.