First step towards Russian Constellations
25-27 May, Moscow
Jean-Louis Lamboray, co-founder and coach of the Constellation, went to Moscow for three days to meet with the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Europe and Central Asia, Russia’s Joint UN Team on HIV/AIDS and civil society from 7 Russian cities. Regional UNAIDS Team has conducted a self-assessment of their AIDS competence. The meeting with the Joint UN Team on HIV was build on the presentation of the Constellation experiences around the world and sharing of UN experiences in mobilization of Russia’s local communities. On the third day, Mr. Lamboray met with the representatives of civil society organizations from Barnaul, Chelyabinsk, Kemerovo, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Samara and Irkutsk to discuss the opportunities for the implementation of the AIDS Competence Process in Russian cities.
The civil society was enthusiastic and even passionate about the AIDS Competence Process, said Jean-Louis after the visit. On Thursday 27 May, people from all over Russia came to participate in a peer assist. They discussed how the approach can be spread in big cities. Participants were hesitant about the best entry point for the approach: through the mayors, local universities or through civil society who then involves the mayors. We will work on invitation, so with the cities who are interested, and not by selecting those cities that are most at risk.
Team members of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team were also open to the approach. As a team they did their AIDS competence self-assessment. It was a great process. I am happy to learn about my colleagues things that I did not know for the time working in the team and I am inspired by the energy we generated during this morning for creating Russia’s constellations, shared Elena Sosnovskaya, from UNAIDS.
Denis Kamaldinov, the chair of the Humanitarian Project, an NGO at Novosibirsk commented that it was an interesting initiative and that they we would be glad to learn more about it. The future of the project in Russia will depend on the design of the project and its adjustments to the local specifics.
UNAIDS Team for Constellation Project will go through the Blended Learning Programme immediately as well as a group of civil society organizations will join the course as soon as it will be available in Russian language. At the end of 2010, there will be a pool of facilitators in Russia. During this period, actors from the field will explore the best way to introduce the approach in the field.