Positive Voice naimed “European Citizen of the Year”

The European Parliament declared the Greek Association of people living with HIV/AIDS Positive Voice 2023 “European Citizen of the Year” for the Ref Checkpoint initiative, by decision of the Chancellery of the European Citizen Award.

The European Citizen’s Prize was established by the European Parliament in 2008 and is a reward for outstanding achievements, activities or actions of citizens and organizations that promote European values: human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights rights.

Ref Checkpoint is a prevention and sexual health center for refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants in Athens and provides free information, counseling on sexual health issues in the native language of the beneficiaries (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Urdu or Farsi), anonymous testing for HIV and viral hepatitis, and linking the beneficiaries with the National Health System or with other agencies and services.

The idea of ​​this initiative, which began in 2022 with the support and assistance of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation Europe and the Municipality of Athens, arose from the identification of the significant obstacles faced by mobile populations in their access to health services and the lack of modern, inclusive sexual health information materials.

Ref Checkpoint, adapted to the needs of this community and implemented by the people of the target community themselves, was and is intended to provide access to targeted, inclusive sexual health services without stigma and discrimination.

We congratulate our colleagues from Positive Voice for this great achievemtn and recognition of their work.

World AIDS Day 2022 in Greece

From the Positive Voice news

December 1st – World AIDS Day is the most important day of the year for the Hellenic HIV Association – Positive Voice with the culmination of efforts to inform, raise awareness and promote prevention and sexual health. This year, the actions of the Association embraced 14 cities, apart from Athens and Thessaloniki.

Early in the morning, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited Positive Voice’s offices in Athens, met and spoke with people living with HIV. Among other things, they discussed the government’s latest legislative initiatives regarding the explicit prohibition of discrimination in the workplace for people living with HIV, the adoption of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) in Greece and the problems concerning the Units Infections.

The Prime Minister heard from members of Positive Voice and representatives of vulnerable social groups, such as drug users, sex workers and refugees, what it is like to live with HIV and how the virus affects their lives. A review of the five years of the “I’M POSITIVE” campaign organized by the Onassis Foundation and the Positive Voice to combat stigma was also presented.

From 11.00 to 15.00 in Monastiraki Square, the Ath Checkpoint Prevention & Sexual Health Center team provided free, rapid and confidential tests for HIV participating in the initiative of Positive Voice, the biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences and the Hellenic Society for the Study & Treatment of AIDS (EEMAA) with the slogan “If you want to learn, you put your finger“. A bold and provocative approach was taken to capture the attention of as many people as possible, and the goal was achieved.

The Leader of the Official Opposition, A. Tsipras, visited the booth and talked to volunteers and workers from Positive Voice, was tested for HIV and sent his own message against stigma and discrimination, promoting regular testing, the prevention and promotion of sexual health.

In Thessaloniki, the Thess Checkpoint (as well as the Ath Checkpoint) remained open from 12.00 to 20.00 welcoming the public without the condition of a scheduled appointment. Throughout the day Ath Checkpoint and Thess Checkpoint provided a total of 227 HIV tests.

At the same time, groups of volunteers carried out HIV information and awareness campaigns in Athens, Alexandroupoli, Heraklion, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Kavala, Karditsa, Kefalonia, Komotini, Kos, Lamia, Larissa, Orestiada, Patras, Rhodes and Serres. In this way, the messages of the Positive Voice reached all over Greece and we sincerely thank all the people who contributed.

At 18.00 a gathering was held in Monastiraki Square in Athens to remember and pay tribute to all the people who have died in the 41 years of the history of HIV/AIDS. During the action we lit candles in the shape of the red ribbon, which has been established as a symbol of remembrance for this world day.

     

     

At the same time, throughout the day, but also afterwards, members and employees of the Association appeared in the mass media to put the issue of HIV and the latest developments in the field back into the public debate. Among others, there were appearances, interviews or entries on ANT1, ALPHA, SKAI, OPEN, ERT, Crete TV, TV100, Pride 98.6, Athens 9.84, SKAI 100.3, Alpha Radio 989, Shape, Popaganda, OW.gr, LIVEIT.gr, Istorima, NEWS247.gr, Ygeiamou.gr and ItsEstella.com.

An end to labor arbitrariness at the expense of people living with HIV

 

From Positive Voice news

On 24 November 2022, the Parliament of Greece voted unanimously to ban discrimination at work against people living with HIV. It is a special day for the fight against HIV stigma, but also a day that honors the Government and all the parties of the Greek Parliament. The universal support of the provision, a rare fact in parliamentary practice, on the one hand demonstrates its correctness and importance and on the other hand emphasizes that issues such as the protection of human rights cannot be a field of partisan confrontation, but of agreement, sending a resounding message for the removal of discrimination and reducing stigma.

The specific article 48 was passed in the framework of the law “Rationalization of insurance and pension legislation, strengthening of vulnerable social groups and other provisions“, of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. People living with HIV are one of the most multi-vulnerable and marginalized social groups. This article derives from the International Labor Organization’s Recommendation 200/2010 on HIV/AIDS, according to which “actual or perceived HIV-positive status should not be a reason for discrimination that would prevent the recruitment or continuation of employment or equal opportunities in accordance with the provisions of the International Labor Convention 111“.

With this provision, which was introduced by the Ministry of Labor in response to a request from the HIV-positive Association of Greece, discrimination in work and professional life, to the detriment of people living with HIV, is now expressly prohibited and the investigation (examination) of HIV infection by the – potential – employer, an issue that was not ensured by the legislative framework until now, resulting in abusive, stigmatizing and unacceptable practices in the workplace.

The Association of HIV-positive people Positive Voice thanks the Government for the initiative, which follows other initiatives, as announced by the Prime Minister in his message last year for the 40th anniversary of the emergence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

 

Supervised use area finally opened in Athens

From the Positive Voice webpage

The Association of HIV-positive people of Greece Positive Voice, DPNSEE member organisation, warmly welcomes the opening of the Supervised Use Area (XEX) “STEKI 46” by The Organisation Against Drugs OKANA. After more than ten years from the epidemic of HIV in people who use substances in the center of Athens and after the cessation of the operation of “Odysseus” – the first site that operated as a pilot for some time (2013) on the initiative of the then President of OKANA, Professor of Psychiatry Mr. Mallioris – finally a permanent claim of the Civil Society professionals in the field, but also of the involved community that has been affected by the absence of such structures.

In a meeting held on 18 April 2020, in the presence of the Prime Minister Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the President of OKANA Athanasios Theocharis and the representative of the Positive Voice, responsible for Harm Reduction issues, Marios Atzemis, presented a number of urgent issues.

Positive Voice hopes that the site can provide both smooth operation of the space and full utilization of the multidimensional to the population of the most vulnerable people who use substances.

According to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction, the safe consumption areas provide a safe framework for the use of substances in hygienic conditions under the supervision and the possibility of immediate intervention by qualified personnel. They are harm reduction services, the usefulness and effectiveness of which have been proven many times over.

XEXs function essentially as prevention sites for opiate overdose and as centers for preventing the transmission of blood-borne infections, such as HIV and hepatitis. They are also often a gateway for a multi-excluded, heavily stigmatized and marginalized population to various services that would not otherwise be accessible to them.

From Positive Voice’s experience in the field, any structure, strategy and practice of harm reduction not only saves lives, but can be the bridge to reintegration and facilitate access to any form of treatment.

In order for all this to happen, one must first stay alive. Every year in Greece we mourn deaths that could have been prevented by simple means. “Every death from overdose is a manifestation of the failure of the drug policies in our country so far.

This was pointed out, among others, by the person in charge of harm reduction of Positive Voice, Marios Atzemis, in a joint speech with the President of OKANA, Mr. Athanasios Theocharis, within the 2nd European Symposium of Controlled Uses (2nd European Symposium of Drug Consumption Rooms) organized by the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe and took place at the latter’s premises in Strasbourg on 1 July last year.

There is still much to be done to improve the conditions under which substances are used in the center of Athens. This is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, always centered on the common and unified strategy followed by the European Union on Drugs and the Joint European Action Plan. If the guidelines of the Commission and the Council of Europe are consistently followed, Greece can see significant improvements in the conditions of use and quality of life of people who use substances, as they have shown examples of cities such as Lisbon, Rome and Amsterdam where the European directives were implemented.

Drug policies are not judged by intentions but by the result and the existence of such places brings tangible, measurable results“, concludes Marios Atzemis.

Based on the requests we made to the National Committee for Drugs, the requests that arise from the field and the developments in it, but also based on the constant and timeless requests, the Positive Voice claims:

  • Immediate adoption of the new National Action Plan on Drugs by the diligent inter-ministerial committee of Surveillance Areas in each area where there is a concentration of people who use high risk
  • Approach of the competing populations where they are, by strengthening the services in the field (state, Civil Society) but also further strengthening each front line service, such as e.g. the distribution of sterile utility equipment
  • Extending the legal framework for naloxone – an antidote to opioid overdose – to pass into the hands of civil society organizations and the community directly involved, its users and relatives, a practice which in foreign countries has prevented countless unjust deaths
  • Evaluation of all services aimed at people who use psychoactive substances by themselves
  • Involvement of the community directly affected in the design and implementation of policies and services that directly affect the lives of its members
  • Inclusion of the special needs of the populations involved (gender issues, LGBTQI + inclusion, interpretation and intercultural approach to design, services of detoxification structures)
  • Ensuring the human rights of those who use it
  • Strengthening and staffing of the Special Infections Units and establishing their cooperation with the substitution units but also with those of the “dry” programs
  • Complete, appropriate and free primary and secondary mental health services
  • Creating harm reduction services for people who use substances found in penitentiary establishments
  • Training of security forces and health professionals
  • Combating homelessness and precarious housing with the immediate reopening of state-owned housing and the further creation of new accommodation and housing structures for people using in Athens and Thessaloniki
  • Identify and combat the factors that contribute to the further stigmatization, marginalization and social exclusion of people who use “problematic” substances

Drug use is a manifestation of the complexity of human behavior and existence, and addiction – according to modern views – is often the result of a complex and divisive trauma.

 

The full information note on the visit of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the Supervised Use Area “STEKI 46” of OKANA is available (in Greek) following this link>>>.

Watch the entire discussion here

 

Streetwork Project in Athens and Thessaloniki

The “Streetwork Project” – an initiative of the two clubs “Checkpoint” and “Red Umbrella Athens” and “ARISTOTLE” – was created in 2013 and over the years has approached vulnerable groups such as users of psychoactive substances, refugees, immigrants, sex workers, men who have sex with men and the homeless. The project implements actions in central parts of Athens and Thessaloniki and provides information services, harm reduction, referral to other agencies and organizations. It also intervenes to promote prevention, regular screening and safer sex and distributes leaflets, condoms and synergies for safer use for intravenous users.

The Streetwork Project addressed the additional needs that emerged in the field during the pandemic, due to the restrictive measures. At the same time, the partial suspension of organizations and agencies providing support services to vulnerable populations has exacerbated the situation, as many of their homeless fellow citizens are already facing severe food problems. That’s why they adjusted their actions, extended our working hours and days.

On Tuesday, March 31, 2020, through the websites and social media of the clubs, they issued the first call to the public to strengthen this effort. The response was very moving.

On Monday, April 27, 2020, due to the growing needs, they started a crowdfunding campaign to raise more food, bottled water, juices, snacks, protective medical material (masks, gloves, antiseptics) and personal hygiene items.

If you want to make a cash donation, crowdfunding campaign can be found here>>>. It will be available until May 30, 2020.

So far, they have collected:

  • 1,600 kit of sanitary material for injectable use
  • 6,000 disposable gloves
  • 4,500 protective masks
  • 50 antiseptic wipes
  • 25 sleeping bags
  • 14,000 bottles of bottled water
  • 2,500 juices
  • 3,500 croissants
  • 2,500 snacks (breadsticks, nuts cookies, etc.)
  • 2,500 portions of food

From March 31 until today, they have made the following available to vulnerable groups:

  • 400 kit of sanitary material for injectable use
  • 100 disposable gloves
  • 100 protective masks
  • 50 antiseptic wipes
  • 15 sleeping bags
  • 3,500 meals (portions of food, toast, sandwiches, croissants, etc.)
  • 3,000 juices and water

 

Shelter for homeless users opened in Athens

Source: Positive Voice

On the initiative of the Municipality of Athens and in collaboration with organisations OKANA and KETHEA a shelter for homeless users of psychoactive substances opened its doors in Athens on 22 April 2020. It is located at the premises of the Ionis Hotel at 41 Halkokondyli Street, in the centre of the city and aims to “embrace” vulnerable groups in order to protect them from the coronavirus pandemic.

The building will accommodate 70 people providing the possibility of hosting up to 140 people for up to 6 months.

Users will receive the following services on a 24-hour basis, with full respect for human rights:

  • Housing
  • Individual care and hygiene
  • Treatment programs
  • Nursing
  • Counselling
  • Psychosocial support and interconnection with health services
  • Legal assistance
  • Providence
  • Social and labour reintegration

Greek organisations started street work with vulnerable groups

The Positive Voice announces the suspension of the operation of the prevention and examination centres “Checkpoint” in Athens and Thessaloniki, from 16 March 2020.

In the context of our contribution to the suspension of the spread of the pandemic, but also to the protection of the health of their visitors, volunteers and employees, the Association took all appropriate measures and has already stopped the operation of Red Umbrella Athens in Omonia and the examinations at the “Syn Athena” Home of the Municipality of Athens.

But, the same day, in the framework of the emergency plan for the care of homeless and psychoactive substance users, the Municipality of Athens held a meeting with organizations active in the field of prevention and harm reduction of vulnerable groups. The Association of HIV-positive people of Greece “Positive Voice”, the Association of Liver Patients “Prometheus“, OKANA, KETHEA, Praksis, STEPS and Doctors of the World were invited and attended.

The agreements that were unanimously accepted are oriented to the following actions:

  • Minimize the transmission of the virus to the vulnerable population, through continuous information, wide distribution of sanitary and pure injectable material and access to personal hygiene, nutrition and hospitality services.
  • Adoption of measures aimed at reducing the consequences of the transmission of the virus

Since then, the street work of the associations “Positive Voice” and “Prometheus” has been carrying out actions to support vulnerable groups through the provision of food, safe use synergies and protective equipment (such as gloves and condoms).

In particular, to date they have reached 434 people and have distributed more than:

  • 200 kit of sanitary material for injectable use
  • 2,882 condoms
  • 110 servings of food
  • 464 snacks (toast / sandwich / croissant)
  • 208 juices and water

The Anti-Narcotics Agency (OKANA) has contributed to this effort by distributing sanitary material, safe use synergies and information leaflets.

On Tuesday, April 7, 2020, the Association of HIV-positive people of Greece “Positive Voice” and the Association of Patients of Liver of Greece “Prometheus” were hosted on the ANT1 show “Special Report”.

Journalists conducted extensive research discussing the people who live on the streets and the organizations that implement their support programs. Following the appearance of the first case of COVID-19 in a homeless day centre in Piraeus, the show is investigating the safety net of vulnerable groups from the spread of the virus.

As part of the emergency plan of the Municipality of Athens for the care of homeless and users of psychoactive substances, the two associations have undertaken an extraordinary initiative through street work, in order to support vulnerable groups. Users of psychoactive substances, homeless people, sex workers, immigrants and refugees are the target groups of the initiative and their support is provided through the provision of safe use and protective materials (such as gloves, injectable material and condoms).

In his interview, the President of the Association “Prometheus”, George Kalamitsis, among other things, noted that things have not changed enough today. “What has changed is that some of our fellow citizens are more afraid. There is fear either for the pandemic, or because there are too many police in central Athens at the moment. The reasons are obvious, but they are scary. As for the hospitality structures and the supervision of the people who live in them, we need services that can be adapted to the needs of the people.

At the same time, Nikos Fitsialos, head of the street work team, added that “general attention needs to be paid to the people who are outside, especially now that citizens who are in solidarity are not circulating and will share a portion of food or a conversation. People lack communication. We notice that people want to talk to us, they ask us and they need it. Not necessarily to learn information about the coronary artery, but to have a human contact.

In the interview, the Municipality of Athens highlighted the need to minimize the transmission of the pandemic to vulnerable populations, through continuous information, wide distribution of medical supplies and access to personal hygiene, nutrition and hospitality services. In addition, Nikitas Kanakis from Doctors of the World added that “the homeless today are under the radar of epidemiological surveillance and are people who do not have the ability, not only to protect themselves but also do not have the right to individual responsibility.

The action of the street work team takes place three times a week, every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and is implemented mainly in Omonia, Exarchia, Syggrou Avenue in Metaxourgeio and on Panepistimiou (Nomiki), Kavala, Iasonos, and Patision (ASOE) streets. . After careful consideration of the growing needs, it is necessary to expand working hours and days, something that will happen very soon.

Positive Voice also published advice for Greek citizens that have been stranded abroad and those that are not a Greek citizen and have been stranded in Greece on the procedure for accessing antiretroviral treatment.

For more information about activities in Greece, you can contact Positive Voice.

Too bad politics and prejudice keep getting in the way

Photo: Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images

DPNSEE Board member Marios Atzemis contributed to the article

“We know how to end AIDS”, published by Politico

Greece was never known for the quality of its health system. But in 2009, at least among drug users, HIV was not a major threat – just 15 were diagnosed with the virus that year.

Then came the financial crisis and the harsh austerity that followed. In 2011, another 256 drug users learned they had HIV. In 2012, the number was 484. The reason for the explosion: the Greek financial crisis and the harsh austerity measures that followed.

Marios Atzemis was one of the Greek drug users diagnosed with HIV in 2011. He had been addicted to heroin and a regular in Athens’ open-air drug markets well before the crisis. Then in 2010, street services to help drug users stay safe lost a third of their funding. Atzemis stopped seeing the vans that used to distribute fresh syringes, even as new users were entering the scene, shooting newer, cheaper drugs.

As a community of drug users, we didn’t have an effective means of defense,” said Atzemis, now a harm-reduction coordinator with the Association of People Living with HIV Greece Positive Voice) “It was very easy for us to be targeted and to be scapegoats.”

The doctor refused to put him on anti-AIDS antiretroviral medication until he got clean at a rehab clinic – even though the clinic was on the brink of being shut down for lack of funding.

For Atzemis, now 44, this was enough motivation to wean himself off the drugs. “It didn’t work the same for other people,” he said.

For better or worse, Greece shows that a country doesn’t need to fix its entire health system to deal with HIV. As a case in point, its progress on AIDS hasn’t translated into progress on correlated problems like hepatitis C. Those rates rose during the debt crisis and haven’t ebbed much; based on 2017 data, around 62 percent of drug users in Greece have tested positive for hepatitis C.

The crisis-era HIV outbreak marked “the first time that all the stakeholders – NGOs, state structures, every single one – worked together to face this epidemic,” said Atzemis. “And probably the last time.”

To read full article, follow this link>>>

14 September – Sex Worker Pride day

Today is Sex Worker Pride day, a day for sex worker community to celebrate their achievements and share stories of sex workers’ self-determination while honouring the tireless efforts of colleagues everywhere to secure rights and safety for all sex workers. It is an opportunity to celebrate and share stories of sex workers’ self-determination and the achievements of the sex worker rights movement.

After its introduction by the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), the Sex Worker Pride day becomes the fourth annual key date of the sex workers rights movement. Globally sex workers face many challenges in day to day life. They are being marginalised, stigmatised and stripped from their rights. Their voices are often ignored but they never stop pursuing the rights they desperately need. The sex workers rights movement is powerful with a vibrant and diverse community that has drive and compassion that’s too big to be stopped by the difficulties they are facing.

Sex Worker Pride extends to all marginalised by criminalisation, discrimination and stigma across the sex worker movement and celebrates the diversity within our community during International Sex Worker Pride.

To mark the first Sex Worker Pride day, our colleagues from the Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN), a sex worker-led regional network in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia publishes its Annual Report that shows SWAN’s work in diverse areas in order to achieve our objectives as laid out in our Strategic Plan 2018-2022. We join our members, colleagues and allies in celebrating our never ending passion for creating a better world for sex workers.

This annual report is available in English and Russian.

In Greece, the phrase “Take care of each other” continues to inspire the team of Red Umbrella Athens. A new initiative of the Day Centre and the DPNSEE member organisation Positive Voice Roadmap is the “Before You Enter, Put In” campaign. This is an attempt to sensitize sex studio clients to avoid taking photos or videos in their respective locations without the consent of the people working there. As part of Red Umbrella Athens team visits to sex studios, this issue has often been communicated as a major problem that disrupts their functioning.

 

Organisation STAR-STAR from North Macedonia, the First Sex Workers Collective in the Balkans, released a video to mark the Sex Worker Pride day.

Women in Drug Use: Deafening silence

In Greece, the Support. Don’t Punish campaign was this year dedicated to women who use psychoactive substances, the silent group that has no voice or face in the country, but suffers from stigmatization and marginalization and is hard-pressed by serious problems in addition to its usual usage.

On the occasion of Global Day of Action of the campaign, the member organizations of the NGO Platform for Psychoactive Substances (Peer-to-Peer Users Network of Psychoactive Substances, Diogenis Policy Dialogue on Drugs, Positive Voice, Centre for Life, Prometheus, Steps and PRAKSIS) organised an event dedicated to women using psychoactive substances. They invited guests to talk about them, name them and open the road together to find realistic solutions, listening to the stories of the women themselves as well as the experiences of professionals in the field. The event was held on 27 June at the Beatniks Road Bar in Athens.

Women have the right to enjoy rights and fundamental freedoms, without discrimination, in all areas of life. These rights also apply to women who use psychoactive substances.

The multiple identities that women using drugs experience – pregnant, mothers, workers, migrant, refugees, sex workers, trafficked persons, victims of physical violence, prisoners – reflect the particular needs associated with the experience of social stigma, financial situation, insufficient social support, family relationships, a substance-mate partner, children and treatment. Services for women using psychoactive substances should take into account these particular needs of this vulnerable population and be hospitable, non-critical, supportive and, of course, provide emotional safety.

A “Rights Guide” for women using psychoactive substances which highlights the above was presented at the event.