Ukraine has held a unique training on working with transgenders

From September 17-19, Alliance for Public Health organized at the first time in Ukraine a training – “Motivational counseling and involvement in HIV prevention projects for transgender people” in Kyiv, for social workers working with transgender people (TG).

For the first time, social workers, psychologists, TG activists and volunteers from non-governmental organizations met to discuss the peculiarities of work and counseling transgender. During the training participants discussed the needs of the target group and, unfortunately, it turned out that the topic of personal health is not the first in the queue of TG needs, and therefore needs to be popularized. During the training discussed the messages that were made clear for TG, the channels for disseminating information on project services, and social workers worked out counseling skills.

The ethical principles of work, the issue of tolerant and impartial attitude, were subjects of all three days of training. The trainers of this training were Svetlana Haiduk from Alliance for Public Health and the coordinator of the NGO “Health and Protection of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender” (HPLGBT) Igor Medvid.

The training was organized within the framework of the project “Investing for Impact Against Tuberculosis and HIV”, which realized by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Transgender people are a new target group of HIV prevention and treatment programs. In 2018, with the support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria 10 NGOs are implementing TG prevention projects. During 6 months of 2018, 697 transgender recipients received the basic package of services, 572 TG were tested for HIV infection.