“Dear Joost van der Meer,
We would like to congratulate you with the tenth anniversary of AIDS Foundation East-West! We thank you and your great team for invaluable help, professional approach and trust relationships! Thanks for all six years of partnership and for all the work your organisation has done in Kazakhstan. We wish AFEW further prosperity, and may AFEW exist for another 100 years!

Kind regards,

Staff of Public Foundation “Doverie Plus”
Roza Oleynikova, head
Almaty, Kazakhstan”

We would like to thank our partners in Kazakhstan for appreciation of AFEW’s activities in this country. Though left in circumstances, when the funds to continue building innovative HIV prevention programmes like Client management and Harm reduction, and helping the most marginalised populations of Kazakhstan are scarce, we hope to carry on fulfilling our mission – reduce the impact of HIV and AIDS in the region.

On January 31, AFEW organised a tour of harm reduction projects for Kathleen Ferrier and Ewout Irrgang, MPs from the Dutch parliament. The aim was to show legislators how harm reduction is an effective approach that prevents the spread of HIV and the negative consequences of drug use. AFEW and its partners also explained to MPs the severe lack of funding for these projects at the international level.

As a result of the visit, Ms Ferrier and Mr Irrgang promised to initiate a dialogue with their inter-parliamentary contacts on the Netherlands’ contribution to the international HIV response. They also expressed their readiness to contact the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, in order to highlight the need for increased commitment to harm reduction in Russia.

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International tennis star Anna Kournikova today gave her public backing to the Vienna Express 2010: Towards Universal Access. See the video message below from Anna, who is currently an ambassador for AFEW’s partner organisation PSI (Population Services International).