Chisinau, 21 May 2014 - UNODC, UNAIDS, UNWOMEN, UNFPA, UNORN and EHRN organized a roundtable entitled "Scaling up services for women who inject drugs, people living with HIV/AIDS and women who are ex-prisoners". Around fifty participants representing central and local authorities, public and international organizations and prison and civil sectors attended the round table. The event resulted in the endorsement of resolution stating the necessity to develop and implement specialised programmes for that are tailored for different groups of women vulnerable to HIV infections, such as - women who inject drugs and ex- prisoners, and stressed the need for these programmes to be included into the national policies and strategies.
The main objective of the round table was to provide a space wherekey national stakeholders, including decision makers and service providers, could discuss the access to gender-responsive health and social services for women who use drugs. The event, also serving as an platform to advocate and raise the awareness of participants on the critical need to scale-up services, captured the attention of national authorities while presenting concrete measures and tools needed to sustain the access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care services at local and sectorial levels.
National high level officials, including H.E. the First Lady of the Republic of Moldova, Mrs. Margareta Timofti, were present at the event. In her address, the First Lady called for intensified efforts of state institutions in providing necessary assistance to women who use drugs, she said " It is necessary to implement gender-sensitive programmes, with a particular focus on ensuring confidentiality and encouraging women to seek assistance. Specialized services that would address the specific needs of female drug users are limited in Moldova. Unfortunately, the various centers where women can get help in difficult situations (violence, human trafficking, maternal centers) do not provide support to women with drug dependency problems". ( http://www.presedinte.md/rom/prima-doamna-evenimente/margareta-timofti-a-participat-la-o-conferinta-dedicata-combaterii-consumului-de-droguri#sthash.3cEtOst2.dpuf)
The Deputy Minister of Health, Ms. Svetlana Cotelea flagged the importance of strengthening, adjusting, and reshaping the already existing services in the country according to the evidence-based approaches and international practices, instead of creating new services. While the Deputy Minister of Labour, Social Protection, and Family, Mr. Gheorghe Turcanu, acknowledged the need to integrate services and highlighted the necessity to further develop the partnerships between governmental sector and civil society organizations.
This round table was a follow-up activity to the "Regional Forum on the Health and Human Rights of People Who Use Drugs", held 19 to 20 May 2014. Already there Mrs. Margareta Timofti had appealed to state institutions to take concrete steps in order to eliminate the obstacles that prevent access to healthcare and ensure social inclusion of disadvantaged people. The First Lady proposed that Moldova should focus in particular on harm reduction programmes, " Our region is facing a growing HIV, TB epidemics, and it is already the region with the highest prevalence of hepatitis C. We should not allow for these epidemics to grow. In order to increase the access to treatment it is important to work together. Harm reduction programmes are helpful in preventing diseases and deaths among drug users and diminishing suffering. It is more effective to prevent disease than to treat it". ( http://www.presedinte.md/rom/prima-doamna-evenimente/margareta-timofti-a-participat-la-o-conferinta-dedicata-combaterii-consumului-de-droguri#sthash.3cEtOst2.dpuf)
For more information, please contact: Ina Tcaci, National HIV/AIDS Officer, UNODC (The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Moldova); Tel: + 373 (22) 854 099; ina.tcaci@unodc.org