Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies - 4 April 2003
Galina Obukh in Molodechno
"Knowing this, our administration asked me to start a syringe exchange programme for drug-users," says branch chairperson, Nina Bliznyuk. In spring 2002, the local authorities provided the Red Cross with the premises for a syringe exchange point, and the programme started.
To raise awareness of the scheme, Bliznyuk went on live radio and placed advertisements in the local press. She went to a drug-abuse clinic and to the police to speak about the importance of harm reduction in light of the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic, in an effort to reach potential beneficiaries.
Somehow she gained more trust among local drug-users than the municipal health authorities that are implementing a similar programme. During the past year, they have exchanged just 60 syringes, while the Red Cross exchanges the same amount every month and a half.
"That is because the Red Cross has good quality syringes, and the clinic doesn't," explains Svetlana, 34, one of the four drug-users that regularly comes to the Red Cross exchange point.
She started using heroin when she was 16 years old, after her family moved to Molodechno from the Crimea. She fell in love with a young man û her future husband - who was already using the drug.
"It was 1985. The Soviet Union û 'no drugs, no sex'," Svetlana says in despair. "We had no information about it, no one knew what it was, one could prepare a drug in front of a policeman and he wouldn't have realised. No one told us how bad it was or what the consequences were ... And there we were, young and romantic. Life was wonderful and even better under the drug."
Sixteen years of injecting two or three times a day have ruined Svetlana's life and health. Her only wish now is to stop and devote herself to her 12-year-old son, Zhenya.
"I dream of the methadone therapy that would cure me of this disease," she says hopefully. Then, coming back to the reality, she adds, "but it would never come to our small town."
Svetlana's husband Leonid is in jail. She herself got out just a year ago, and was deprived of parental rights, but they still live together at Svetlana's parents' home. For them, she is no more than a disgrace to the family and another mouth to feed.
"Some people like you live no more than four years. Why are you still alive," her father says calmly, but cruelly. Her mother shouts from behind a closed door that she "has no will to overcome the dependence". Svetlana listens silently, showing no emotions. She remembers the times when her parents sold their last valuables to buy her another dose that saved her from dying.
"I always ask my son not to repeat his parents' mistake," Svetlana says. "I tell him that if anyone offers him a drug, he should not take it. He is my only comfort. He keeps my thoughts away from suicide."
The syringe exchange is so far the most effective thing the Belarus Red Cross can do for drug-users in its efforts to prevent HIV transmission. The latest statistics shows that there are nearly 5,000 registered HIV cases in the country, though officials say the real figure is probably five times higher.
"So far none of the drug-users I know here have HIV- and I don't want to be the first," Svetlana says. "Drug-users rarely have sex, so we don't need condoms so much, but we need a clean syringe three times a day."
More than 80 per cent of all people living with HIV/AIDS in Belarus are intravenous drug-users (IDUs). "That is why harm reduction is needed here," says Anna Parovaya, coordinator of the BRC's "Youth against HIV and AIDS" programme. "But it is very difficult to carry it out because of the psychological resistance from the general public, let alone the authorities."
Although syringes are not expensive û the highest price is less than the equivalent of 15 US cents - it is still impossible for IDUs to buy them. Most of them do not have any income at all. The occasional money they get is all spent on heroin û one gramme, enough to last four days - costs around 30 dollars.
"You don't think about diseases when you are desperate for a fix," Svetlana says. "Clean or not, any syringe will do, so it's good that there is a place where you know you can get a clean syringe at any time."
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