Volodymyr

"There are all sorts of feelings involved when someone finds out they have HIV. You have to make people understand that they have someone to turn to, life does not end there"

Volodymyr

Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine

At the start of his career, Volodymyr trained as a social worker to support people who use drugs, so that no one else would go through the same ordeals he had faced in his own life. He has also served as the Regional Representative at Volna, the All-Ukrainian Association of People with Drug Addiction, and co-founded the Western Ukrainian Resource Centre (a RADIAN-funded initiative), working closely with communities in his home city of Ivano-Frankivsk.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Volodymyr’s work has focused on providing a range of HIV services and humanitarian support for internally displaced people in Ukraine.

Volodymyr’s story

Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine

Volodymyr’s work has, for a long time, focused on helping marginalised groups such as people who use drugs, sex workers and the LGBTQ community to overcome challenges with stigma. These communities often faced discrimination, especially if their HIV status is revealed. He states that “if someone is living with HIV, it is easy to find out; the city is very small”, this can result in someone being “thrown out on the street” even during the winter months which can be bitterly cold in Ukraine.

Through a local partner, Volodymyr secured RADIAN funding to provide humanitarian assistance to people living with HIV who have been internally displaced as a result of the ongoing conflict. This has included providing people with accommodation, legal aid, and medical assistance who have fled to Ivano-Frankivsk from other parts of Ukraine. “The communities are in great need, I'm saying this because I talk to people every day and they are in need, they don't have money for food, they don't have work, they don't have understanding, they don't have anywhere to go.”

According to Volodymyr, criminalisation and the inhumane treatment of people who use drugs remain as major barriers to progress in the HIV response. He believes that different communities need unique approaches and solutions ‘each community is different, they have their own needs’.

A key part of his work also focuses on HIV testing and prevention, because of the war and the migration of people Volodymyr explains “we need to constantly look for new cases.” Recently he has seen many cases of HIV outside of key population groups and believes it is vital to expand HIV testing. He recalls helping a couple, who first contacted him for humanitarian assistance but had no idea they were living with HIV. The woman was eight months pregnant and after providing immediate hospital care for the mother and following the birth of the baby, Volodymyr helped house the family at a shelter where the parents are now on antiretroviral therapy (ART). “People come to us all the time, and we help them in many ways.”

People come to us all the time, and we help them in many ways.

Volodymyr has a vision for a more compassionate legal system with no discrimination on any grounds. He envisions a future without the ill-treatment of people who use drugs, who can be sent to penitentiary institutions with no access to HIV medication or the ability continue treatment. He imagines a future where people are treated with dignity, compassion, and have hope. “We need to change everything so that we don't look at what a person does, but what kind of person they are.”

By continuing the hard work supported by those around him, he believes Ukraine will become an example for positive change in the world.

THE IMPACT OF RADIAN ON VOLODYMYR’S WORK

Funding from RADIAN has allowed Volodymyr to provide vital humanitarian aid to vulnerable key populations, including people who have been internally displaced because of the conflict.

With this funding, he has supported initiatives across the care spectrum including prevention, testing and harm reduction, getting to know and protecting the rights of people living with HIV.