Last week, AFEW-Ukraine was proud to participate in the Ukrainian Women’s Forum on HIV and AIDS, which took part on 19-21 of September 2016 in Odesa, Ukraine. It was the second National Forum that now becomes the biggest event for women initiatives focused on HIV-related issues and an effective platform for empowerment of HIV-positive women.

On the first day of the Forum at the parallel session, the Project Manager Iryna Nerubaieva shared AFEW-Ukraine’s experience of working with vulnerable underage and young girls with the risk of sexual exploitation and presented the training module “Towards Yourself”. The presentation was followed by a lively discussion about the fine line between sex work and sexual exploitation in Ukraine and the region of Eastern Europe in general and demonstrated the urgent need to continue such work with young girls in our country and to explore and develop new approaches to deal with the upcoming challenges.

On the second day Vira Varyga (who is the coordinator of our joint project with the Kyiv branch of Network PLWH – the self-help group “Kyianka+” and the board member of NGO “Positive Women” (Ukraine) spoke about a life of women with HIV in Ukraine and presented success stories of self-help group for HIV+ women in Kyiv.

The Forum also provided a great opportunity to educate the most active volunteers of “Kyianka+”, to engage them in wider advocacy activities and to empower them to grow up to be a driver of change.