Mildmay International Expands to Eastern Europe to Combat HIV Epidemic

In March 2011, Mildmay International Chief Executive Fi McLachlan travelled to Eastern Europe, an area with dramatically escalating rates of HIV, to pave the way for a scale-up of the charity’s operations in a region in increasing need of an integrated HIV response.

Fi visited the Baltic state of Estonia and Ukraine, a country which Mildmay International has previously worked in and is now looking to return to with new programmes in line with One Step Beyond, its strategic plan for 2011-14.

“We have already trained doctors and nurses in Ukraine as well as drug rehabilitation workers in the region, which is significant given the number of people with drug problems who are also HIV-positive,” Fi says.

“With any new programmes we need to look at integrating our work closely with what countries can offer in terms of hospital provision and what the community can offer.

I firmly believe there is a need and the opportunity for Mildmay to scale up in Eastern Europe to contribute to tackling the epidemic, which is really quite rampant in countries like Ukraine. We really have something different to offer.”

Fi says that Mildmay International’s business development and resource mobilisation team currently have two active bids in with major institutional donors to fund programmes in Eastern Europe. They will hear shortly if they have been successful. Up to four further calls for programme proposals are also being considered.

“The fact that these calls are out there shows there is international recognition of the level of need in this region. It’s our target to respond to those calls,” Fi says. She adds that if successful with programme bids, Mildmay would seek to recruit a programme manager based in Eastern Europe and set up an office in the region.

“The purpose of my recent trip was to build on existing and develop new relationships with potential partner agencies, to listen and to learn,” Fi explains, adding that she chaired a workshop of Ukrainian HIV agency staff in the city of Kharkov during her visit.

“The HIV response in Eastern Europe is very patchy – only 10 per cent of those who need antiretroviral treatment in Ukraine receive it.

“There are lots of issues with stigma and discrimination, people don’t feel confident going in for an HIV test and it’s difficult to be open about your status when people can be so scathing and dismissive about people who have got life challenging issues and are HIV-positive.

“But there is a will. People do recognise that HIV is a big issue, particularly among some sections of the community. In some depressed areas, drug use is quite high and intravenous drug use has been one of the major routes of HIV transmission.

“There’s a huge need for training, for education and awareness around HIV. Of course, there’s also the linkage to community-based care.”

Fi describes Eastern Europe as “an HIV landscape that is constantly shifting”.

She adds: “You might ask ‘why is Mildmay even bothering to go there?’ There are certainly easier places to work.

“The reason is there is a growing epidemic and not too many agencies are saying we will go, we will work there, we will go through all the challenges of setting up an organisation in that country, recruiting staff, and seeing where we can make a distinct contribution. We are prepared to do that.”

Fi believes that during Mildmay’s 22 years of HIV care, treatment, training and rehab work in the UK and Africa many lessons have been learnt  that are transferable.

“The experience that Mildmay has of working as an independent organisation in partnership with ministries of health will be invaluable as we begin similar work in Eastern Europe,” she says.

“During my trip I felt particularly challenged by some of the more vulnerable groups: children, commercial sex workers, people who are taking drugs because life feels fairly hopeless.

“We can either shirk the responsibility to help those people or we can believe our call – particularly as a faith-based organisation – is to reach out, step into that gap and grapple with some of those difficult issues.

“We want these people to get quality HIV services. Our hope is to launch new programmes that will impact on people’s lives and make a real difference.”