Mennonite
Central
Committee

Church responds to rapid spread of HIV in Ukraine

Gladys Terichow
November 17, 2006

SIMFEROPOL, Crimea, Ukraine -- Too weak to walk, Irina Anatolievna crawled to Second Baptist church located just a few metres from her house in this city of about 360,000 people.

The day before she had been released from the women's colony (prison) in Crimea and sent home to die.

Her drug addiction had not only resulted in a prison sentence; it had also given her HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Two years later, Anatolievna's zest for life inspires everyone who meets her. "I'm experiencing the miracle of God," said Anatolievna, 41, as she relates how the church congregation helped her find the spiritual, medical, physical and financial support that she so desperately needed.

Mennonite Central Committee supports the Second Baptist church program with a grant of $4,000 Cdn./$3,500 U.S., as well as material aid, such as health kits, school kits, secondhand clothing, soap and other hygiene supplies.

Positive impact

Yet, for Anatolievna there are major challenges to overcome. Recent changes in her life are having a positive impact on the lives of her two younger sons who are now also part of the church congregation. But her eldest son has been in jail since he was 17 and remains at high risk of exposure to drug addiction and HIV infection.

The rapid spread of HIV is one of the most pressing social, economic and political issues facing Ukraine today. In the early 1990s the World Health Organization estimated about 1,500 people in Ukraine were infected with HIV. This was one of the lowest infection rates in Europe.

According to the UNAIDS 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, the reported number of cases in Ukraine is now over 400,000, about one per cent of the adult population. HIV prevalence increases to seven per cent in the prison population.

HIV prevention

More awareness on HIV prevention is needed to reduce the spread of the virus, says Anatolievna, wishing that her son could have participated in the HIV prevention program run by the Second Baptist church in a pre-detention institution for 60 young offenders, ages 14 to 18.

This project, supported by Mennonite Central Committee, does more than provide medical information about HIV, says the program's medical consultant, Dr. Elena Filipieva. It also focuses on self esteem, anger management, healthy relationships, the consequences of addictions and God's unconditional love.

Many offenders come from families where parents have drug addictions, live with HIV or are serving prison sentences, said Pavel Genadievich, director of the institution's social education and psychological work. Some of the offenders have been orphaned by AIDS. Although the young offenders are still teenagers, the crimes they commit are often the result of their own drug and alcohol addictions.

"We have to start the process with healing their minds and souls-the next step is to bring knowledge," explains Filipieva. "We give them direct, pure information about AIDS but that is just a small part of the whole program."

"First of all we try to help them understand themselves as a person who builds relationships with other people. When we speak about their crimes we try to explain it is not because they were born as offenders, but that they have not been taught how to relate to other people. We talk about the unconditional love of God so that they can love themselves and have healthy attitudes towards themselves and towards other members of society."

Genadievich said he shares the optimism that this holistic approach does more than reduce the spread of the virus. Helping young offenders adopt and maintain healthy behaviours is also a crime-prevention strategy.

"Our goals aren't new but we are now trying to achieve our goals in a different way," he notes. "We now have teachers and psychologists challenging them to think about serious issues in their lives-issues that influence their minds and behaviour."

It may be too late for Anatolievna's eldest son to learn about the risks of HIV infection through the church-run program in the pre-detention center, but program volunteers are visiting him in prison and plan to assist him when he is released in 2008.

 

 

Gladys Terichow is a writer for Mennonite Central Committee.