Sharing the reality of drug use in Ukraine
29 July 2008
Pavel Kutsev, executive director of the Drop-in Centre, a harm-reduction organisation working with drug users in Kiev, Ukraine, will soon be sharing the reality of his day-to day work with a wider audience thanks to social media tools.
With funding from Rising Voices, Pavel is going to be using blog posts, photos, podcasts and online video to highlight the reality of drug use in Ukraine and its impact on public health.
The Drop-in Centre carries out harm-reduction activities with people who have been conditionally sentenced for drug-related crimes. It also publishes a newsletter called Motilek (meaning butterfly) which is distributed across Ukraine.
Pavel tells us more about his work at the Drop-in Centre:
“It is difficult for drug-addicted people to find a job. Working here means a chance to socialise, a reason to get up. Here, substitution therapy is respected and encouraged. We are able to do the job better and more sincerely than others because we understand drug use.
The Drop-in Centre has three primary purposes:
- to prevent and change dangerous behaviour;
- to consolidate the community; and
- information and education.
We also share our district-level experiences in our newsletter, Motilek, which is distributed right across Ukraine.
We use a peer education approach: people addicted to drugs work with people addicted to drugs. We have a common problem and this unites us.
Three out of four of our outreach workers are on substitution therapy. They share their experiences and clients see how they can change. We show that drug-addicted people can do something.
We don’t involve former drug users because they no longer identify with drug users and they lose the connection with the context. How many people give up? Ten out of a hundred? But there are thousands with a problem.
Drug addiction equals loneliness. We are marginalised and want people to be integrated into society. We try to provide as much information as possible: know more, have more rights, live healthier!
Many people in the community are in their forties, with a long history of drug use. Many of our clients are our children’s age: we use our experience to motivate them to refuse drugs, or to instil in them the “culture of use”, which is our purpose and work.
We also carry out motivational counselling. It’s something we came to ourselves. We feel the need to help our clients. Changing life together is much easier than doing it alone.
We are very critical of people who break the law, even if it is explained by drug addiction. We’re often asked questions on legal issues and we share our own experiences as we don’t have a lawyer in our project.
We want to cooperate with government institutions. Many people receive conditional sentences for drug use and we distribute leaflets at the door of the Department for the Execution of Punishment. We are seen there regularly, and those who need to talk come to us. But we can’t get a spot inside. We had to conduct the training about overdosing on the street, right near the Department’s windows, and testing was conducted on a bench. They even keep us away from the hall.
We wish the police, who help us, had inspired the Department. The police were so overrun that they set up an information section in their unit and named it ‘drop-in centre.’ They constantly ask us for information materials and distribute them to parents or those in need. This was all their own initiative too.”
The social media project will start in September 2008 and will run for two years.
