November - December 1999
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UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS |
Strategic Planning in Volgograd and SaratovThe reports on the HIV/AIDS situation in the Saratov and Vol-gograd regions, where the field research was piloted in June, were introduced to the regional partners and discussed by the project actors at the workshop held in Moscow in mid-September. With reference to the experiences in the pilot region, a detailed action plan was developed for October _ December 1999. It is expected that the field work will be completed by the end of the year. In January 2000 the partners will start elaborating on the federal HIV/AIDS prevention strategy. The first steps to developing a regional strategy for HIV epidemic prevention will be made immediately, the Volgograd Regional administration decided. The region was one of the first to join the strategic-planning process and one of the two where the field-research component of the situation analysis was piloted. Mr. Evgeny Kharichkin, Chairman of the Volgograd Region Committee on Family, participated in the September Moscow workshop on behalf of the regional administration, said: "The report on the HIV situation in the Volgograd Region is a comprehensive, in-depth study displaying social, economic, psychological, medical, legal and other factors influencing the HIV epidemic in the region. Based on solid data, the report offers an overview of the risk groups and zones, and draws a picture of the response to HIV being implemented in the Volgograd Region. The conclusions of the report are important in terms of planning and budgeting the complex prevention activities, as well as in developing regional legislation and regulations". Kaliningrad Region: First Steps to Strategic Planning
A joint team of researchers that included sociologists, psychologists and Kaliningrad AIDS Centre professionals studied in-depth various factors influencing the HIV spread and impact of the epidemic. The leadership of the region and its municipalities, heads and practical workers of the departments and institutions of the social sector, NGO representatives, journalists, young people, as well as drug users and commercial sex workers, responded to a series of questions from the researchers. A round-table meeting concluded the field work to introduce the situation analysis process and its preliminary results to the key regional actors. The report on the HIV/AIDS situation in the Kaliningrad Region will be made available to the Kaliningrad partners by the beginning of November to serve as a basis for the planning steps. Regional Seminars in Siberia and the Far EastSeminars on HIV prevention among vulnerable populations were held in Barnaul and Vladivostok in August and September.
These two seminars concluded the series of workshops on the topic organized by UNAIDS in cooperation with the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation for the health professionals of the Russian regions. |
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UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation |
The Opening Day of the International Year for a Culture of Peace - 2000On September 14 the International Year for a Culture of Peace campaign (year 2000), announced by UNESCO around the World, was launched. The people of the Earth were invited to sign Manifesto 2000 for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence. In Moscow a Week for the Culture of Peace was organized by the UNESCO Moscow Office and launched in more then 1,400 schools. Events included the gathering of signatures on the Manifesto 2000 and involved young "peace-maker" teams. In an interview with our news-letter, the Director of the UNESCO Moscow Office, Mr. Wolfgang Reuther, noted that the campaign for the promotion of the International Year for a Culture of Peace is not restricted by official, protocol events. "Since the launching of Manifesto 2000 in Paris in March of this year the UNESCO Moscow Office has organized some important events. In fact one of them was the interregional conference aimed at putting an end to such evils as hostage-taking. The conference that addressed the problems of kidnapping, hostage-taking and selling people brought together more than 100 representatives from different Russian regions and CIS countries in Nalchik in July. In May in Moscow a meeting was held of Mayors for Peace on the occasion of the International Forum "For the Culture of Peace and Dialogue among Civilizations in the Third Millennium". A groundbreaking event in the political life of Russia was the international conference on problems of a Culture of Peace and Human Rights in the Armed Forces, Ministry of the Interior and Security Forces, which took place in April in Moscow. As you see, official events on the occasion of Manifesto 2000 are not only a start but a continuation of a hard work of UNESCO in the name of Peace", the Director of the UNESCO Moscow Office stressed. The opening day of the International Year of Culture of Peace was also marked in Kazan where a solemn procession passed through the central streets of the city and a concert at the central square was held and brought together representatives of Muslim and Orthodox confessions. In agreement with the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO in the capital of Tatarstan the Institute of the Culture of Peace was inaugurated. It will be one of the first in the world to specialize in the training of peace promoters.
UNESCO Seminar in Veliky Novgorod
Vice-Governor of the Novgorod Region Mr.Vladimir Alfimov welcomed the participants. A welcoming address has been received from Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Egorov. The participants discussed the implementation of the above recommendation in the region on the basis of the assessment of the answers to the questionnaire sent to them prior to the meeting. They formulated concrete recommendations aimed at providing a necessary follow-up to the seminar in the near future, e.g., a recommendation requesting UNESCO to initiate a procedure of elaboration of a special convention on the safeguarding of traditional culture and folklore on the basis of the recommendation of 1989 and the 10-years experience accumulated in this domain. Delegates were unanimous in pointing out that traditional culture and folklore can be a powerful means of bringing together different peoples and social groups and of asserting their identities in a spirit of understanding and respect for other cultures. |
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WHO World Health Organization |
New Initiative for TB Control in Russia |
WHO Elects New Regional Director for 2000 - 2004
At this annual gathering of the "European Health Parliament" many important public-health issues were discussed, but perhaps the most exciting event was the election of the new Regional Director replacing Dr. Jo Asvall, who is retiring after 15 years of service. From among candidates representing Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, and Switzerland, Dr. Marc Danzon (France) was elected by the country delegations. Dr. Marc Danzon has a long career in public health and good knowledge of WHO. He worked at the Regional Office of WHO in Copenhagen from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, lastly as the Director of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Since then he has worked in France as Director of the Public Health Department of the voluntary nonprofit health insurance agency Mutualite Francaise. Dr. Marc Danzon knows Russia and the situation here well. After his election in Florence he said that he would put strong emphasis on the work of WHO in the countries themselves. The WHO Office in Moscow looks forward to close collaboration with the new Regional Director. Prosthetic Assistance to Amputees in the North CaucasusThe war in Chechnya and other ethnic conflicts in the past 10 years have had severe consequences for the population of the North Caucasus. Large-scale armed hostilities and the extensive use of artillery and landmines have caused a high incidence of complicated wounds to the lower limbs of civilian victims and have resulted in many amputations.
Three expert prosthetic technicians were recruited to provide services at a temporary workshop and to train local specialists in Nazran, Ingushetia. Over 200 amputees have been helped through this centre. Another workshop was established in Vladi-kavkaz, as due to border conflicts the patients from North Ossetia could not travel to Nazran. In 1997, due to the deteriorating security situation, all activity of the prosthetic workshops had to be moved to Vladikavkaz, where another 100 lower-limb prostheses were fitted to patients. In 1998 this temporary workshop was upgraded by training two local experts in St.Petersburg. Currently this important rehabilitative work continues as part of a broader initiative called "Health as a Bridge to Peace in North Caucasus". In circumstances where the conflicts between people are severe, health has proven to be almost the only area where fighting parties can come to talk with each other any more. The experience, whereby fighting groups come to realize that they in fact still can agree on something that will benefit victims from both sides, can be very therapeutic. |
Field research works
within the situation analysis in the Kaliningrad Region took place in September. The
Region, which is the most affected by HIV in the Russian Federation, is one of the
partners to the strategic planning process. 
The Barnaul seminar
brought together medical professionals from different Siberian regions, many of them
experienced in assessing the situation and working with the drug users on HIV prevention.
Medical doctors from the Far East territories attended the Vladivostok seminar. 
A regional seminar on
the application of the Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and
Folklore (UNESCO, 1989) in the countries in transition of Eastern Europe and Asia was
convened by the UNESCO Moscow Office in Veliky Novgorod from September 28 to 39 with the
participation of representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia,
Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
Slovakia, and the general secretary o the International Organization of Folk Art (IOV)
Mr.Alexander Veigl. 
The delegates of 51
member states of the WHO European Region met at their Regional Committee Meeting in
Florence, Italy, from September 13 to 17, 1999. 
Due to the collapse of
the economy and social infrastructure in the region, the majority of amputees have not
received crucially needed prosthetic assistance. The total number of amputees in need of
assistance in the North Caucasus region is still unknown. What is certain is that the
latest unrest in Dagestan will make the situation worse. According to the first assessment
in 1995, there were some 300 patients with amputations in Ingushetia and North Ossetia in
need of professional prosthetic assistance. The total number of amputees in Chechnya may
well be as high as 3,000.