Month: January 2023

The #HelpNow team has prepared a detailed report for 2022 describiing all challenges and achievements so that every Ukrainian knows that #HelpNow is nearby and always ready to help!

In the first days of March 2022, a week after russia started its full-scale aggression against Ukraine, the APH developed and launched a unique service to support PLHIV and KP, who encountered difficulties in accessing treatment and other necessary services. Leaving their homes and becoming internally displaced persons or refugees in other countries created an additional barrier to access to vital services and jeopardized adherence to treatment and life for such people. #HelpNow has made it easy to reach people in need using various methods. The Hub team can quickly inform these people and direct them to the service they need in their new (temporary) location.

For ten months, from March to December 2022, #HelpNowHUB received more than 15,800 requests from Ukrainians in 47 countries and within Ukraine, coordinating through # HelpNowPL, #HelpNowDE, #HelpNowClinicalHUB and direct social support.

More details in the report:

Oksana (name changed) is a social worker. She herself has been living with HIV+ status for almost 20 years, her son also belongs to the PLHIV community. For many years she worked by profession, first in Poltava in an NGO, then moved to Kyiv, then to Stryi (Lviv region). From there they left for Poland when the war started. Oksana said that they were at the border for 5 days because they fell into the first “wave” of refugees. The son was 17 years old at that time, so they were released together. The first two months were spent in Siedlce (Poland) with friends, but the therapy was ending, so the woman began to look for information on where to get it. “That’s how I saw your contacts on Google for the first time. The manager answered very quickly and gave all the addresses. I was also interested in the situation regarding receiving ART in Gdansk, because we were planning to move there. I also received this information thanks to the HelpNow service, for which I am very grateful!”

After moving, Oksana and her son promptly registered, underwent examinations, and received an appointment for therapy. Barriers began to appear gradually. First, with the boy’s employment (he had already turned 18 at that time). Due to his work schedule, he could not always come to receive ART when he was prescribed. So Oksana started sharing her medicine so that there would be no interruption. She was issued for three months, and she came after one. “The woman at the ART office was very surprised why I appeared at her door so early. This continued until I learned from friends that it is possible to make a commission in my name and receive money for it. It helped.”

The woman shares that if there are no problems in the case of getting ART, it is difficult with the medical system in general: “Maybe we are so “lucky” with the hospital, because I hear that in Warsaw or Krakow everything is accessible and fast. But here, even an appointment with a family doctor takes a month, and tests take three. If you know the Polish language, they make concessions, and if not, you wait until they appoint it. What can I add… In short, it’s better at home!”

When Natalya left her native Kyiv for vacation in mid-February 2022, she never thought that week would last…almost a year already. The woman was in Georgia and was supposed to return home on the 23rd, at night, when the war began. ART she had only for an incomplete month, so that’s what she stayed there with. She says that with the Ukrainian passport there were no problems in issuing therapy and taking tests, but it was like that until November. Currently, the conditions for Ukrainian refugees have changed in the country and now the monthly course costs 50 lari ($18).

Natalya moved to Turkey from Georgia, but did not stay there for long – the conditions for people living with HIV and who are not citizens are unfavourable: to be registered for free therapy, you need to have an ikamet (residence permit) and only 12 months after that you can submit a request for medication. Few people want to go that way. Yes, there are funds that help support vulnerable groups of the population, and even with them, everything is not easy: obtaining a certificate from a local doctor, traveling to one of the five points throughout the country where ART is given for free… Or visiting private clinics for money. Natalya decided to move and chose Norway.

“I contacted your service when I was in Turkey. Googled, found contacts, wrote. You gave me all the information I was interested in. HelpNow is a really fast service, no problems.”

Natalya approached the administration in the refugee hostel, showed the certificates that she had and the drug wrapper. “They asked me for how many days I still have ART, I clarified that it is for a week, no more. And before the New Year holidays, they brought me a 3-month supply of medicine. A visit to the infectious disease specialist was scheduled for January 18 as well. By the way, he works 500 km from my place of stay, so they bought me plane tickets there and back. Tests, visits and therapy are also free. Current medicine is paid for, but if a person has HIV, tuberculosis or hepatitis, the costs are covered by the state. Thank you again for helping your service to inform and provide such much-needed support, especially now.”