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Harm reduction program for IDUs piloted in two Zambo barangays |
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Posted on 30 April 2008 Two barangays in Zamboanga City are the sites of a pilot harm reduction (HR) program designed to help curb high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV among injecting drug users (IDUs). Barangays Mariki and Sta. Catalina in Zamboanga City are the focus of a nine-month (February – October 2008) pilot program aiming to demonstrate the feasibility, acceptability, and immediate effectiveness of a pilot HR model among IDUs and their families and communities. The pilot project is one of several activities under the ADB Regional Technical Assistance for Fighting HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific - Subproject 5: Strengthening Country Response to HIV/AIDS among High-Risk Groups (RETA 6321), currently implemented by PRIMEX in association with ACHIEVE and Remedios AIDS Foundation. The pilot program was launched last February 8 with Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat, ADB Social Sector Specialist Barbara Lochmann, PRIMEX President and CEO Elvira Ablaza, and HDES Executive Director Malou Lim in the presence of local stakeholder representatives from the LGU, PDEA, and HDES, the local NGO subcontracted by PRIMEX to manage the pilot program in close collaboration with the Zamboanga City Health Office (CHO). In welcoming participants to the launch, Ablaza remarked that applying the harm reduction model for the first time in the Philippines may pose challenges, but the Project team is "confident that with everyone's support and cooperation, we will be able to produce good results at the end of the nine-month implementation period." At the community level, the pilot project is being managed by Human Development and Empowerment Services (HDES), a local partner NGO. The pilot intervention, which consists of various activities on policy advocacy, training and services, also aims to improve the policy environment for the implementation of HR initiatives in the city, enhance the capacity of service providers to give psychosocial support to current IDUs and their families and communities, improve access of IDUs to services through the HR outreach posts, and sustain safe injecting and sexual practices among current IDUs through participation in support groups. The choice of the pilot site was based on factors like accessibility, partnership with the local government, and presence of active stakeholders despite being a community with high prevalence in drug use by intravenous injection. |
