“Positive People Armenian Network” NGO was founded in 2006. The mission of the organization is to create a society, where people living with HIV will feel themselves as a full member of the society and won’t avoid disclosing their status and focusing the attention of the society and wider community on HIV/AIDS and issues caused by it. The main mission of the organization is to plan large-scale events among the society, which can change the stereotypes about people living with HIV.
Starting from 2007 the organization implements the “Providing care and support to people living with HIV” project by the financial support of Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The main beneficiaries of the organization are people living with HIV. The work of mobile team, who provide services are planned and implemented in frames of the project. The mobile team specialists visit beneficiaries in their places of residence, provide counseling on healthy lifestyle, meal plan, treatment and care to people living with HIV and their families. In frames of the project the organization provides medicine, which is distributed by the National Center for AIDS prevention, to people living with HIV in the regions. The realization of the project also gives an opportunity to create job positions for people living with HIV, as they are involved in projects implemented by the organization. The potential of people living with HIV, who are involved in the organization, gives positive results. Social and psychological counseling is provided to people living with HIV, mutual support groups are organized and implemented. The staff of the organization demonstrates individual approach towards each person, they help to solve or overcome the problems. There were cases during the mutual support groups, when people met, got to know each other and formed families.
Anahit Harutyunyan, head of the organization
The organization closely cooperates with several governmental, international and local organizations, who work in this sphere. In 2009, together with 3 other NGOs, “Real World, Real People”, “Public Information and Need of Knowledge” and “Women’s resource center” the organization formed the “Advocacy Group on AIDS”. The Advocacy Group on AIDS implements various events, campaigns, raises issues at the state level, tries to solve the issues to which people living with HIV face. The organization also closely cooperates with local mass media to cover the issues of people living with HIV in a wider scale. People living with HIV face various issues in communication with their relatives and friends. It often happens in Armenia, when no one gets to know about one’s HIV positive status. Disclosing of kid’s status or disclosing of kids’ parents status is a special problem. These and other problems are the basis of interpersonal and psychological tension, which has negative impact as on a child-parent relationship, as well as on person’s health. In order to prevent such a process, the organization conducted psychological work with people living with HIV and their kids. These regular meetings gave quite good results, which is evidenced by the parents’ satisfaction. During the meetings kids learnt to understand better their own emotions, tried to see themselves from aside to thoroughly understand others’ reaction. Parents also mentioned about positive changes both in kids’ relationship with them and in school environment. Any obstacle that a person living with HIV overcomes in his/her life is already a small victory. And it is not a victory for person living with HIV only, but for the organization’s coworkers as well. And it is not important, who helped him/her, but the important part is that a person living with HIV understands and finds his/her place again in the society, continues to live and create. That is the main achievement of the organization.
Narine Grigoryan, Nvard Margaryan
