Tag: Aksion Plus

Assistance in legal issues for Aksion Plus clients

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The DPNSEE member organisation Aksion Plus started offering support to their clients in legal issues. Their stuff has informed its branches in the cities they are active as well as other individuals interested in recent Open Society Foundation Albania (OSFA)-backed intervention assistance.

At the meeting that was conducted in the methadone dispensing office in Shkodra, they arranged the meeting to inform all users who receive methadone that Aksion Plus is providing free legal aid in collaboration with the OSFA Legal Clinic in Shkodra. In obtaining legal aid, Aksion Plus’s representative in Shkodra city has a task to stay in constant contact with legal representatives and representatives of Aksion Plus in Tirana regarding the progress of cases the users addressed.

In addition, a meeting was also held with representatives of the OSFA legal clinic in Shkodra. Apart from legal assistance in the administrative and civil aspect, consideration was also given to the provision of legal aid in criminal matters as well.

OSFA legal aid clinic in Shkodre

As for the city of Tirana, two other cases of MMT clients have been identified, which sought legal assistance for: jail sentence, taking custody of children. Constant contacts are maintained with the law office to see the progress of the issues.

 

Aksion Plus spring activities

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As a partner on the project “Strengthening NGO capacity and promoting public health and human rights oriented drug policy in South Eastern Europe”, DPNSEE member ogranisation Aksion Plus implemented activities. 
In March 2018, in the cooperation with ASHR (Regional Health Authority), a service was provided for performing Hepatitis B & C and HIV/AIDS testing for drug users and LGBTI population who receive services at the Aksion Plus Center. The purpose was a health examination aimed at referring to the relevant instances to provide the necessary medical assistance.

Following that, they organised the meeting with drug users in the city of Elbasan at the Methadone Dispensing Center. During this discussion, the conversation was about the problems encountered by drug users in this city. The issues discussed were around the topics related to and focused on getting more detailed information about methadone use, its impact and the facilities offered to users to receive this service. Based on the latest Harm Reduction Manual printed last year, the techniques of harm reduction were discussed with the participants, as well the new projects that Aksion Plus intends to implement in the future about the use of drugs.

Conclusions of the meeting were that they, as the key population, should be more active and supported to self organise so as to be able to communicate with local authorities in order to advocate for more services, chances of employment, better access to health structures, etc. In addition, all participants at the meeting were informed about the current project that Aksion Plus has undertaken in collaboration with a law office. This initiative aims to provide free legal aid to drug users.

One of the problems highlighted during the meeting was discrimination in institutions and employment opportunities. For this reason, we discussed encouraging cooperation between them to demand respect for their rights. Of course with the support of Aksion Plus.

Youth of SEE on YODA Workshops 2018

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Within Youth Organisations for Drug Action in Europe, the network of European organisations that have a specific scope of activities devoted to young people at risk, youth representatives from DPNSEE member organisations Aksion Plus, HOPS, Juventas and Re Generation spent two weeks  in Eastern Europe, cities of Warsaw and Kiev, on a study visit within the capacity building workshops. On this set of workshops, YODA network members from 8 European countries participated, those that work on the ground offering harm reduction and health services to those who need it, often the most marginalised and stigmatised youth in our societies.

The study visit consisted of different classroom workshops, including the variety of site visits, all covering topics such as cross-substance use, LGBT health, drug checking, problematic use and harm reduction related to young people.

Džoli Ulićević from our member organisation Juventas said for the YODA blog that the opportunity to attend YODA training in Warsaw was very valuable to him, especially in the terms of getting insight into the practical part of work of PREKURSOR Drop in Centre and Foundation for Social Education mobile unit (Warsaw Mobile Units, video).  He said also that the exchange of experience and knowledge with more experienced activists in harm reduction programs improved his skills in harm reduction and provided him with many ideas which can be implemented in Montenegro regarding harm reduction for young people using drugs, specially within some vulnerable groups, such as young LGBTIQ people, sex workers or people who are members of ethnic minorities.

The site visits in Warsaw included also ES-SIN after party project and discussion on harm reduction in young people using drugs problematically), FES mobile HIV/AIDS/HEP C/STI testing point.

In Kiev the group visited Club Eney, self-help group and drop-in centre, LGBT community, testing centre and Convictus centre.

 

Vladana Stepanović, former DPNSEE volunteer and Re Generation member, said that in addition to organisations group visited in Ukraine, we heard that there more organizations which are in some way dealing with the issues related to drug use and support to drug users. That shows serious understanding of the problems regarding public health and human rights situation.

“What we have seen and learned there we should advocate to our countries, more specifically Western Balkans and Serbia, emphasizing that even Ukraine, in the complicated political situation, can find way to support harm reduction services as one of the key answers to prevention of Hep C and HIV. At the same time, in Serbia and specifically Belgrade with approx. 10.000 injecting drug users, we don’t have any organization offering any kind of harm reduction services.”

The third session of the workshops will start on 11 May 2018 in Podgorica, Montenegro, hosted by our member organisation Juventas. Over three days, the workshop will tackle homeless youth and focus more on organizational and ethical aspects of working with young homeless people and protection of human and social rights of young homeless people who use drugs.

A dialogue between civil society and donors

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The Open Society Foundations convened civil society activists from HIV, harm reduction, sex worker and LGBT communities from South Eastern Europe and health and human rights donors to discuss opportunities for strategic collaboration to sustain HIV prevention services for key populations and facilitate transition to domestic financing of these programs. The half-day meeting was held on 18 January 2018 in Belgrade, Serbia.

The aims of the meeting were:

  • Share examples of civil society advocacy towards domestic financing of HIV services, including efforts to push national governments to commit to provision and financing of services for key populations;
  • Discuss current challenges sustaining programming for key populations in the region with a specific focus on the threats to the human rights movements, programs, and advocates that were directly and indirectly supported by the Global Fund when it was still active in the region;
  • Present examples of how targeted donor support for civil society engagement in transition and sustainability process can bolster government ownership of the HIV response;
  • Discuss strategies and opportunities to address the service gap and enable civil society to navigate the transition process, as well as roles that donors, regional networks and technical agencies can play.

DPNSEE member organisations representatives were panellists: Denis from Margina and Dragos from RHRN presenting situation in Bosnia Herzegovina and Romania, Ivana from Juventas presenting the promising case study of Montenegro and Milutin, together with two other networks (ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for Western Balkans and Turkey and SWAN – Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network) on possibilities for work together to strengthen national and regional advocacy.

Many organisations were at the list of potential invitees. Finally, around 35 CSO participated. Besides DPNSEE, 9 member organisations were present: Aksion Plus, Margina, Viktorija, Labyrinth, Cazas, Juventas, ARAS, RHRN and Prevent.

The meeting was mainly about presenting situation and needs, with not many questions and comments from the floor. Most of the results were achieved in informal exchanges with other participants. Besides OSF and Global Fund representatives, donors included Embassy of France in Serbia, Mama Cash and Reconstruction Women’s Fund (Serbia). Representatives of other Networks included Eurasian Harm Reduction Network and Eurasian coalition on male Health.

Just after the main meeting of the dialogue, an Informal dialogue on LGBTI and HIV in South-Eastern Europe was organised by the ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for Western Balkans and Turkey. Most of the DPNSEE member organisations participated in the meeting that addressed the current work done, gaps and challenges in collaborating towards protecting LGBTI rights and addressing HIV and needs and opportunities for a regional approach and support of this work.

Representatives of the DPNSEE member organisations at the Dialogue

Albania joined Support. Don’t Punish

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For the first time this year, Aksion Plus joined the “Support. Don’t Punish” campaign. In this framework, they organized an awareness campaign for two weeks, arranging different meetings, focus groups with the drug users related to human rights protection, what tools they can use to advocate for their rights and increase the access toward social, health and legal public services. One of the activities was the “Photo campaign” where we invited different stakeholders to make a photo with the poster of the campaign “Support, Don’t Punish”, such as decision making representatives and service providers of Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, Probation Service Institution, Public Health institutions, Ombudsman, social workers, psychologists, volunteers;  very known artists in TV and famous Albanian singers; service beneficiaries, such as MMT, sex workers, LGBT and Roma community members.

The main activity was the awareness day in occasion of 26th of June, in Durrës. Since most of the population is in summer holidays, Aksion Plus organized a big event on the beach, among vacationers.  For this event they closely collaborated with Caritas Albania, informing at the beginning their 50 young volunteers and on 26th the two organisations went together and distributed information among people. At the beginning of the activity, a big banderol with the logo “Support. Don’t Punish” was placed in an open place with key message on drug policy, in order for the passers-by to see and to understand what this activity was about.

Global Day of Actions 26 June in Durrës

Various local TV stations were invited (Top Channel Durrës, A1 Report). The director of Aksion Plus, Mr. Genci Mucollari, gave an interview on the aim of this day and activity. He called for all responsible institutions and decision makers’ involvement in injecting drug users’ human rights and access toward service provision. He gave some messages to general population, to say “no” to the discrimination toward these target-groups.

The day continued with the distribution of the brochures, leaflets and posters of the campaign. All the volunteers and staff was wearing T-shirt and hats with the message “Support. Don’t Punish”. It was an exciting day for young volunteers and they managed to distribute more than 2000 IEC materials.  More than 1500 existing and new brochures/leaflets were provided to other A+ centres.

This activity and other A+ news and information were widely covered through social networks. It had a good impact on the Facebook public, especially pictures with artists and politicians.

IDPC and DPNSEE was step by step posted and informed with written statements and pictures from these activities.

Albanian artists and politicians supporting the campaign

Support. Don’t Punish – SEE Country activities

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Albania

In the frame of the 26th of June and the world campaign Support. Don’t Punish, Aksion Plus will organize awareness activities in two cities, Tirana and Durrës, distributing leaflets and sharing information especially to young people. In parallel, they launched an online blog inviting young people, their beneficiaries and partners such as Y-peer, YMCA, Youth Voice network to write “What would you do about drug user’s rights, if you were a Prime minister” related to the drug policy reforms, treatment, and other related actions.

Other activities also involve their clients at opioid substitution therapy centres (OST) where they organise small group discussions, outreach information, leaflets distribution, one to one conversations and counselling to raise their awareness on how to better protect their rights, as well as to provide referrals to other institutions in case they face violations from police, courts and law enforcement agencies. The most vulnerable groups among their clients (i.e. street users, sex workers who use drugs, LGBT members) are strongly encouraged and supported to fight for their rights and report to Aksion Plus or to People’s Advocate when they face violence or marked stigma. Their six OST centres will be very active to convey the message of this campaign. Aksion Plus will also try to extend the activities with decision makers and politicians though it will be difficult as the general elections will take place on 25 of June. They have presented their ideas on drug policy and interventions during the Democratic Party election campaign.

Contact: gencaxionp@albmail.com

Bosnia and Herzegovina

To mark the day of 26th of June Association Margina planned a series of activities:
1. Public debate “Addiction and drug addicts in the legislation in Bosnia and Herzegovina”
The public debate on this subject will be held on 26 June, in cooperation and partnership with the University of Tuzla. Professors and students of several universities (Law, Medicine, Education and Rehabilitation, Philosophy and Pharmaceutical) will participate. The goal is that academia provides guidelines on the suggestions of experts and NGOs that Bosnia and Herzegovina need Lex specialis “Law on Drugs” that would encompass all aspects of this phenomenon and its application in the society like the one in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2. Marking the global campaign “Support. Don’t Punish”
The evening of 26 of June will be dedicated to outdoor activities and promotion campaign supported by local DJs and socially engaged bands. During activities, a documentary film “I want to wake up,” will be shown, which gives a complete picture of the life of five drug users in different stages of their life.

3. Press conference and promotion of strategic documents
This event will be the introductory full-day program aimed to the media and partners that want information about these important documents and the developments regarding the Global Campaign to reach to the largest possible number of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At this event Margina will promote the following documents:
• National Strategy of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Drugs 2017-2022
• The policy for reducing harm from drug use in the Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina
• EU Action Plan 2017-2020

Contact: berinabahic@gmail.com

Greece

A group of civil society organisations from Greece will participate in the campaign:
• “CENTRE FOR LIFE” – for the support of people living with HIV/AIDS
• “DIOGENIS”- Drug Policy Dialogue
• “PeNUPS”- Peers’ Network of Users of Psychoactive Substances
• “POSITIVE VOICE”- Association of People living with HIV/AIDS
• “PROMETHEUS” -Hellenic Liver Patient Association
• “PRAKSIS”

These organizations constitute the “Greek Platform for Psychoactive Substances”, an unofficial initiative for joint action among organizations working in the area of drug policy and psychoactive substances. This year all these organizations are supporting the campaign and are responsible for its implementation in Athens, Greece. You can find more at https://www.facebook.com/supportdontpunishGreece/

Activities in Greece will include:
1. Press conference by “PeNUPS” supported by all the aforementioned organizations on 27 June from 12:00 to 14:00 at  Romantso, 3-5 Anaksagora Street, Omonia, Athens with aim to promote the campaign, highlight the actual needs of people who use drugs by giving floor directly to people who are the most affected by problematic drug policies. The challenges in the national drug policy will also be presented and the need for drug law reform and peer involvement will be promoted as one of the basic principles of harm reduction. The discussion will be coordinated by the journalist Mrs. Sotirchou Ioanna.
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/203865003471040/

2. Street event (all the aforementioned organizations) with aim to make the campaign more visible to the general population and to offer some services to people who use drugs (e.g. food, mobile washing machine service, shower bus, rapid tests for HIV/HBV, HCV) Date: to be announced Location: SIN Athina, Athens at 19.00 pm, at Varvakeios square
Facebook event:https://www.facebook.com/events/321069778316468 

Contact: sofia.galinaki@diogenis.info

Macedonia

HOPS – Healthy Options Project Skopje opened the newspaper articles contest on the topic: „Why harm reduction programs are needed in the Republic of Macedonia“. You can find the call for articles here http://hops.org.mk/mk/content/povik-za-izbor-na-najdobra-novinarska-statija-na-tema-odrzhlivosta-i-potrebata-na-programite.

Subsequently, organization announced on-line petition for support on harm reduction programs in the Republic of Macedonia. You can find it at following link: https://www.change.org/p/ministry-of-health-and-the-government-of-the-republic-of-macedonia-a-petition-for-supporting-harm-reduction-programs-and-hiv-prevention-in-of-macedonia

On 25 and 26 June, HOPS will collect signatures for the petition in the main square in the city of Skopje while on 30 June they plan to submit the petition to the Government of the Republic of Macedonia and announce the winner article.

Contact: vlatkod@hops.org.mk

Montenegro

Our Member organization Juventas with other civil society organisations and community-based organisations, including youth organisations organises campaign in capitol Podgorica, but with national coverage on several activities. One of them is media launch of the questionnaire for young people living in Montenegro. NGO Juventas and the Montenegrin Union of high school students as a main aim of the survey will try to obtain information from young people about young people. They will be used to continue creating activities aimed at young people in Montenegro, in the area of drug use. The questionnaire is completely anonymous. Survey among Youth on drug use you is available here https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Juventas

In 2017, the campaign is planned to cover 3 topics: 1) Harm Reduction, 2) Non-existing treatment for underage people who use drugs, 3) Young people and drug use.  Special attention will be given to topic of young people and drug use, which will be a part of youth debate that we will organize around Action Day.

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/799566700220674/ 

Contact: tijanap@gmail.com

Serbia

Belgrade

Within the “Support. Don’t Punish” Global Day of Action NGO Re Generation is planning to organize a movie screening night that will aim to address the main obstacles and main problems regarding current drug policies in Serbia and wider. The event will be organised in Kvaka 22, on the 26 June, and the details of the event you can find on the Facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/312618992520893

The three movies that will be screened will represent different sides of public health and human right issues related to drug use, including three different aspects of use such as recreational, problematic and medical and obstacles that exist when accessing information, services and other relevant programs.
Movies to be screened are:

  1. “Clubbing and youth health” – Harm reduction programs in recreational setting
  2. “Medical cannabis legalisation in Serbia” – Medical cannabis is legal in places as diverse as Canada, Uruguay, Israel and Jamaica. How would legalisation of medical cannabis look in Serbia?
  3. “Without shift” – What happened to NSP programs in Serbia after the Global Fund discontinued funding in Serbia.

Participant of the debate are:
Galeb Nikačević – VICE Srbija
Bojan Arsenijević – Re Generation
Teodora Jovanović – KSEA,
Ognjen Martinović – Re Generation

Contact: ngo.re.generation@gmail.com

—

Novi Sad

The Association Prevent will organise street action on 26 June from 10AM to 13AM in front of „Slobodan Bajić“ student home. The public event will include wearing t-shirts with „Support. Don`t Punish“ message and photograšhing people in the street who will be holding boards with the same slogan. Free t-shirts will be given away to people who want to support the campaign.

Contact: djnebojsa84@yahoo.com

Romania

RHRN with their partners will have the street activity around 2-3 open-air tents that will be installed in the centre of Bucharest, close to the University, to distribute information, the comic book on drugs, some banners on legalization and the campaign, presentations of the NGOs activities and distribution of some drug testing kits (LSD, ecstasy).

Contact: drosca@rhrn.ro

Annual Drug Policy Conference

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The Annual Regional Conference in South East Europe was organised in Thessaloniki from 8 to 10 June 2017. The conference aimed to bring together NGOs, policy makers and researchers active in the drugs field in the region of South East Europe, in order to discuss drug policy developments and trends, exchange experiences and best practices in the region, Europe and the United Nations.

The conference is part of the regional project “Strengthening NGO capacity and promoting public health and human rights oriented drug policy in South East Europe”, supported financially by the European Commission and the Open Society Foundations. The organiser was Diogenis, Drug Policy Dialogue.

National drug coordinators from Romania and Croatia

The Conference agenda included a large number of interesting issues:

  • The Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and drug policy. Priority issues, the role of UN agencies, expected commitments from the member states and role of NGOs. Presenter was Jo Dedeyne-Amann, Chief Secretariat to the Governing Bodies, Division for Treaty Affairs, UNODC. Nikos Stergiou, Communication and public relations Officer, Diogenis, presented experience of two local meetings.
  • Initiatives undertaken in the countries of our region related to implementation of the outcomes of the UNGASS and the role of NGOs. National drug coordinators presented work in their countries: drug co-ordinators: Sorin Oprea (Romania), Milan Pekić (Serbia), Željko Petković (Croatia) and Manina Terzidou, head of the Greek Monitoring Centre for Drugs (EKTEPN) (Greece)
  • Women and Drugs. Facts and Special Characteristics for Girls and Women who use drugs was the presentation from Meni Malliori, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Athens, while Georgia Aslanidou, Psychologist, OKANA Thessaloniki presented about Addicted mothers and the journey of therapy
  • Drugs and internet: experiences, opportunities and concerns in the use of online counselling tools presented by Ilias Paraskevopoulos, Consultant for addictions at KETHEA ITHAKI
  • The Harm reduction project in South East Europe. Developments and next steps presented by Sofia Galinaki, Advocacy Officer, Diogenis and Peers’ involvement in harm reduction, with introduction from Christos Anastasiou, Peer Network of Users of Psychoactive Substances (PENUPS).
  • Irena Molnar and Bojan Arsenijević from the NGO Re Generation, Serbia provided valuable insight into Changing culture in drug use including new psychoactive substances
  • Developments in the discussion about cannabis policy in countries of SEE
Irena Molnar presenting about Changing culture in drug use including new psychoactive substances

Representatives from 14 DPNSEE member organisations, 3 Board members and all 5 Staff were at the Conference. We presented the Network, strategic priorities and plans for the future. Our two volunteers talked about their work on the Glossary and Resource Pool.

Marios Atzemis, DPNSEE Board member, making an intervention

The Conference was a very good opportunity to share and learn about interesting ideas and make plans for the future.

Partners Coordination Meeting

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Representatives of all 6 partners in the EU funded project “Strengthening NGO capacity and promoting public health and human rights oriented drug policy in South Eastern Europe” met in Thessaloniki, Greece, on 8 June 2017.

Partners adopted the Minutes of the Project Partners Skype meeting  held on Friday 10 February 2017 with some additions proposed by DPNSEE. Diogenis informed about successful audit for 2016 and announced  the EC initiated Audit of the Financial report 2015.

Partner organisations presented their short reports about the implementation of the Action plan 2017. Reports from visits to Croatia (written) and Bulgaria (oral, the visit happened just before the meeting) were received, with the comment that more information are needed about the work of civil society organisations. The visit to Slovenia is planned for September.

Agreements were made for preparations of the interim report and action plan 2018 (if possible, they will be done on partners meeting at the end of August/beginning of September). Partners are invited to send their proposals by 20 July.

YODA Workshop for young activists in Europe

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Last week (15 – 22 May) around 30 young people from 12 countries gathered in Belgrade for another round of workshops organised by Youth Organisations For Drug Action in Europe. This time the workshops, funded by European Youth Foundation and Open Society Initiatives, focused on “Promotion of social inclusion and protection of human rights among young drug users “.  Young people came from Serbia, UK, Belgium, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Macedonia and representative of the Council of Europe. 5 of them were representatives of DPNSEE member organisations Juventas, Re-Generation, Aksion Plus, HOPS and Margina.

The aim of the workshop was to analyse different aspects of human rights violations regarding young people and drugs through mentioned topics, so that official document can be drafted, addressing policy change in order to overcome different problems and prevent human rights violation in the future. Within 7-day long workshop participants were showcasing examples of human rights violations of young people protected under the European Convention on Human Rights and also compared the criminal penalties for drug offences in their countries, compared cases of young people receiving drug treatment and discussed access to drug treatment for young people who use drugs.

Albania is “going green”

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The delegation of the Drug Policy Network South East Europe, including Board member Vlatko Dekov and Executive Director Milutin Milošević, visited Albania from 11 to 14 October 2016. Aim of the visit was to present DPNSEE to the Albanian society and build strong relationships with the authorities, institutions and services.

Methadone centre in organisation Aksion Plus  

Our great hosts were Genci and Erlind, colleagues from the member organisation Aksion Plus. They welcomed us in the building they built themself, from the ground! It is an amazing place, providing great conditions for work and different kinds of activities.

The building hosts one of currently 6 methadone centres the organisation holds throughout the country – and two more are to be opened soon. Aksion Plus, an NGO, is the only institution that provides opioid substitution therapy in the country! No hospital, no ambulance, no other state institution. A unique case in the World.

The delegation met with Mr Ulsi Manja, Member of the Parliament active in the Justice System Reform Committee, who works on changes of legislation which would hopefully result in creating structures which will support people with special needs, including drug addicts, and bring more flexibility to the penal code. Special efforts are invested in changing the famous Article 289 to make difference between drug use and drug related criminal.

photo-2-2

Open and informative talk with Mr Ulsi Manja, Member of the Parliament

Meetings with the officials from the Ministry of Interior were an exceptional opportunity to hear from people who organised the famous „Operation Lazarat“ which led to cleaning this centre for cannabis production in the country. Unfortunately, what followed is that cannabis production is now absolutely decentralised and it is cultivated on thousands of places all around the country. Jokes that describe the situations tell that „Albania is going green“ with cannabis fields all around and that „policemen are turned into agriculture workers“ destroying them.

The delegation also met the person which coordinates work of the prefectures which were introduced to enhance local governance and support provided from the national level.

Professionals from the Institute for Public Health gave valuable insight in their activities on fighting HIV/AIDS (Mr Roland Bani) and training and prevention (Ms Andia Meksi). Good news is that the Global Fund will extend their support for these programmes for two more years.

It was also of great value to meet with Dr Sokol Morina, the Drug issues coordinator in the Ministry of Health. He gave a good insight in the changes in the society after the democratisation, which haven’t so much changed the practice of drug use.

photo-3 Good exchange with Dr Sokol Morina and Željko Tadić

The delegation also met with Željko Tadić, coordinator of the therapeutic community Pope John XXIII and exchanged about their approach and results. Unfortunately, there was no time to visit the community which is settled in a village near Shkoder.