HIV/AIDS And Gender Mainstreaming

From May 03 to 09, 2009 ART Capacity Building officer, and two priests of Armenian Apostolic Church – Fr. Shmavon Ghevondyan and Fr. Ghevond Gapoyan participated in the seminar “Complex Approach to Addressing Problems on HIV/AIDS and Gender Equality” in St. Petesburg. The seminar was very informative and useful, especially the second part related to complex approach in addressing HIV/AIDS. The part on gender and vulnerability was less practical, as the major part was devoted to theory, and the current situation in Russia, in this context the expectation of learning about practical implication of Gender Mainstreaming and elaboration of a working Gender Policy were not fully achieved.
The sessions related to organizational baseline assessment, tools for developing HIV policy and programme, as well as mainstreaming of HIV/AIDS in the external context were very comprehensive and the presented tools will be effectively applied. The involvement of clergy in the seminar was important as it gave them a unique opportunity to learn how they can do HIV and Gender mainstreaming in the daily work and the implemented projects, what the root causes of HIV are, what makes people vulnerable to HIV infection, etc. Another value of the seminar was exchange of experience both among the church-related organizations, and most importantly with secular partners, HIV service providing organizations of Bread for the World. As a follow-up of the seminar, it will be highly effective to conduct a joint follow-up meeting to learn what has been done so far by the participants.