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From
October 2009 NSHC has been implementing the project "Gender
Policy to Fight HIV/AIDS, within the project "Strengthening
HIV prevention and the protection of most vulnerable
groups", implemented by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria, in collaboration with Youth of
JAZAS as primary recipient.
The
growing impact of HIV epidemic on women around the world
happens because of the gender, class, social, cultural,
economic and other inequalities. Gender is one of the main
factors that determines the person's exposure to HIV
infection, the ability to obtain care, support or treatment,
and the possibility of coping with problems related to HIV.
Therefore, reducing gender inequality and empowerment of
women are an important part of the fight against HIV and
AIDS.
NSHC
intends to contribute to the inclusion of gender dimensions
in the national response to HIV epidemic, and thus help
improve the efficiency and quality of the fight against HIV
/ AIDS in Serbia. This will be done through improving the
capacity of governmental and non-governmental sector and
media in the field of gender issues and their impact on HIV
vulnerability, and through the creation of a common platform
at the national level on gender equality.
 In
the first phase of the project the participatory research
was conducted to find out about the
knowledge, attitudes and practices related to gender issues
and their impact on HIV vulnerability in the work of
existing institutions and civil society organizations. Four
focus groups were held in Nis, Kragujevac, Novi Sad, and
Belgrade, to which representatives of institutions and NGOs
implementing projects in round 6 and round 8 were invited.
Based on
research results one-day trainings on gender issues and their
impact on HIV vulnerability have been designed and
implemented. Representatives of governmental institutions,
NGOs and media will be invited to the trainings in Nis,
Kragujevac, Novi Sad, and Belgrade in the period from
January to April 2010.
The first
trainings were held in February for 142 representatives of
institutions and civil society organizations in Novi Sad,
Belgrade, Nis and Kragujevac. They were held by Dragan
Boyanic and Maja Brankovic Djundic. Evaluation showed that
the average overall mark of the training on a scale from 1
(lowest) to 5 (highest) was 4.42.
Another
cycle of trainings in the same towns will be organized in
March, and trainings for the journalists will be organized
afterwards.
After the trainings, round tables will be organized during
which a unique gender policy will be adopted as a document
that formulates a common position of actors in the fight
against HIV/AIDS in Serbia towards gender issues in the
context of the HIV epidemic, as well as long-term commitment
of all stakeholders.
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