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поиск по ресурсному центру The center receives up to 40 calls from people seeking help daily.
Almaty opened a center for comprehensive assistance for people in a difficult life situation. Now there live 16 people, of which 8 children, according to BNews.kz. The main task of the new center is to help those who, as a rule, are considered useless, denied a job, have difficulties with getting treatment in hospitals and generally, are shunned off. The target group of the new crisis center are HIV-infected, drug-dependent people, persons released from prisons, as well as those who have socially dangerous diseases.
Photo: bnews.kz
The project to open the assistance center was initiated by activists of the “Women’s Fund living with HIV” and the Public Fund “Revenge”. They found the premises at 14-a Omarova Street, signed a contract, defended the idea and now intend to help people in need.
“We are working with the target group, with those people who have been left out, for whom today there are no services, no help, and which seem to be like nonexistent, “invisible people”. No one sees them, hears their voice, and no one wants to know about them. These are risky behavior groups”, says the Director of the center Yelena Bilokon.
Yelena explained in detail why the center is focusing on this target group, and how it will work. Yelena Bilokon knows about the problems of these people not by hearsay. She has already been HIV-positive for 22 years, but she lives a happy and fulfilling life. She has three beautiful and healthy children and is engaged in civil society work. Yelena knows the suffering of drug users and the problems faced by HIV-infected people from her own experience. For many years she has been actively helping such people. In the city of Temirtau, Karaganda region, she created the crisis center for family assistance together with her mother, Irina Zhdanova, called My Home. The center is successfully operating, this experience is being studied by specialists and other activists are trying to introduce it throughout the country.
Photo: bnews.kz
– In the past, I myself went through a very difficult situation, where I’ve actually driven my life myself, – says Elena Bilokon. – I have been a drug user for many years, and I have experienced all the problems of drug addiction, I have hit the very bottom. I used to live on the street, in the summer houses, and once I learned that there are rehabilitation centers, there are people who have achieved sobriety from drugs. Moreover, when I saw those with whom I used to do drugs and thought that they had been dead long time ago, but they looked happy, smiling, I decided to try rehabilitation and that helped me too. It was a long time ago. But I know that you can cope with this if you really want to. I have been abstaining from drugs for 25 years and I know how to help others.
– Yelena, why did you decide to open such a center in Almaty?
“There is no social service in the city of Almaty, which could comprehensively help the people of our target group. And we decided to create such a center, where they will provide a range of services, eliminating any barriers to this. The center provides services that will cover the real needs of our people.
– What can people expect in your center?
– Up to 24 people can live in the center. Now we are helping 16 people, of them 8 children. We provide psychological support, social assistance, we give them advice at every stage, we assist in restoring documents, registering a residence permit, providing legal support, finding job, negotiating with employers, providing temporary residence. In addition, each person in the center has a social tutor – this is now a new activity area, it is a person who provides assistance under an individual program, which is tailored to specific problems.
Фото: bnews.kz
– What problems, as a rule, people of your target group are facing?
– First of all, the problems with documents and registration, as most of our clients do not have them. Because of this, people cannot obtain medical services, cannot get registered with a polyclinic, cannot receive life-saving drugs for HIV-infected people, for ARV therapy, cannot suppress the viral load, some did not manage to get examined by a doctor for three years already. What can we say about emigrants, if our citizens are unable to get these services. All this entails a number of other problems, for example, people who have TB cannot receive social benefits that they are entitled to. They cannot find a job. Well, moreover, everyone has children, and they, together with their parents, are in a crisis situation and they need help, sometimes even more than adults.
– Lena, I your opinion, why these people have problems, today the authorities seem to be doing a lot in this area?
– As they explain to us, now there is an electronic database everywhere, it is used in every facility, these people cannot get enrolled in it without registration and documents. This electronic system now does not allow people in trouble to quickly restore their registrations and get documents, and be included in all records and waiting lists for social benefits. That is, it turns out that a woman who uses injecting drugs is unable to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, and drug-dependent women do not have a regular menstrual cycle because they take drugs, that’s why they fail to timely understand if they get pregnant. Some learn about their pregnancy only when they’re already on the fifth month. And what a child would she eventually have? And who will help them, if the mother herself has unsettled lifestyle?
– And what to do in such a situation, what would you recommend?
– Help, explain, work and do not turn away, no matter what! Another very big problem is the lack of psychological support, when a person learns about their diagnosis, I mean HIV-infected people, they need to be supported, and an integrated approach is necessary to address many of their problems, because not only medical problems arise, there are also many social factors. Services are needed, we do not have comprehensive services, we have the only funds allocated for condoms and disposable syringes, while this standard of services has long become obsolete. We must already ask the target group about their problems, about what do they need now? It’s not only a syringe and a condom that people need now. If we do not want to face the epidemic tide, if we want to reduce the spread of HIV infection, then we need an integrated approach, teamwork. We must immediately start tackling medical, legal, and social problems of target groups.
– Should these be consultations directly at hospitals with such people or do volunteers have to spread this awareness?
– People should know that there are centers in the country where they will receive help. They will get protection; they will not be humiliated or shamed. People having these problems need to be motivated, because the trouble is also that many are unaware of their rights, do not know, for example, what benefits are available for patients with HIV or TB. And the state allocates funds for them. Once a person is diagnosed with HIV, they are immediately prescribed ARV drugs, it’s free. And if they take medicines, then they will not be dangerous for a partner, for others. And now, according to the WHO recommendation, the patient is put on therapy right after getting diagnosed, but many people do not know about this therapy, and they are not always told about it. In addition, many people do not want to try to understand it themselves, someone would refuse treatment for religious reasons. Therefore, women need to be informed, we need to work with them, explain that they can live with this, they can give birth to a healthy child if they take medicines and adhere to prevention. That’s the activities which are strongly needed.
Photo: bnews.kz
– Why is this work organized very poorly? It seems that the authorities tell us that a lot is being done, but people still have a number of problems?
– First, we do not have international donors, they all withdrew, only the Global Fund continues to operate here. There is no one to help with funding. Moreover, there was not a single project, which would address all this complex of services, delving deeply into the problem and researching it thoroughly. We have a relevant experience, the example of the NGO “My Home” in Temirtau, the “Shapagat” association, we have a connection with the community, we work with these people, listen to their appeals, know their problems and are very upset when we cannot help. And people need an opportunity to recover a bit somewhere. But unfortunately, there is no organization that would fully provide comprehensive assistance and cover all the needs of a target group, such as PLWH, persons released from prison, people with socially dangerous diseases, drug users. Even those who are just left homeless, they do not know where to go.
– Are there many people who need help in Almaty?
– Lots of. A huge number, I would say. Only in Almaty we receive 40 calls a day, we have four phones, and each one rings continuously. Many people need help, and not only among our target group. The life is generally hard for many people. Very often we receive calls like: “Accept a woman with a child”. We explain that this is not the situation where are the most relevant organization to seek help, that we have a specific target group to work with. We start calling in crisis centers, they say that they accept people only upon application from the Internal Affairs Department. And as a result, neither the police nor the social services know what to do with so many people in need.
The day before yesterday, a homeless young woman was brought from the railway station with her newborn child. The girl is piss-ass drunk, she is clutching a baby in her arms, it’s about 8 p.m. Where should we put her? If it was an earlier time of day, it would be possible to inform the custody authorities, just to ensure that the baby is secure, because she did not allow to examine the baby briefly. The child’s condition is not known, this girl herself is all dirty, she smells terrible and is dead drunk! I am very sorry for the child. We called everywhere, you can imagine, but no one responded, there is nowhere to put them! It’s a woman with a small baby on her hands! It turned out that she also gave birth to him on the street. We called at 102, they sent a team, but the police staff does not know what to do! The juvenile inspectors have phoned, arrived and said that it’s not their client either. Nowhere to go! Then they tell us: “The girl is mentally more or less okay, she’s able to figure out the things, it’s okay.” And they left! We let her stay at the premises, at 7 a.m. she escaped from us, and I do not know where did this mom take her baby. That’s how things are going, like the example of this homeless mom with a child. Where can they go? There is a “den for the homeless”, but they would not accept there a woman with a child, the childcare center also accepts only children over five. Everyone shifts the responsibility, while people in trouble have nowhere to go. So there should be more assistance centers.
