UNAIDS / UKRAINE LGBTQ+ SHELTER

STORY: UNAIDS / UKRAINE LGBTQ+ SHELTER
TRT: 03:10
SOURCE: UNAIDS
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNAIDS ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: UKRAINIAN / NATS

DATELINE: FEBRUARY 2023 LVIV, UKRAINE

SHOTLINE:
1. Various shots, Lviv city [NOTE: No exterior shot of shelter to avoid recognition of building]
2. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Vadim Pryzenko, Alliance Global Shelter Administrator:
“Our clients can get not only a place to live and food but also social and psychological support, for those who are not living here, we provide humanitarian aid, food, hygienic products, and also individual financial support.”
3. Close-up, electric generator
4. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Vadim Pryzenko, Alliance Global Shelter Administrator:
“We also have generators and high-speed internet, to ensure that people who live here can work or search for a job, study, and keep connected with relatives and friends.”
5. Wide shot, Interior of shelter, two people on laptops
6. Med shot, two people around table, LGBTQ+ flag hanging as decoration
7. Med shot, various people at a table notably social worker, Andriy Kharatin
8. Close-up, LGBTQ+ rainbow flag
9. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Andriy Kharatin, social worker:
“One client contacted us. He came from Kherson when the active military actions started there, he was looking for help here. He was looking for help in Lviv.”
10. Close-up, HIV testing kit
11. Close-up, pipettes and solution
12. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Andriy Kharatin, social worker:
“We accepted him in our shelter and while living here we proposed to have him find out his HIV status. The test was unfortunately positive, and together with him we contacted our medical center. Several days later, he started anti-retroviral therapy."
13. Social worker Andriy Kharatin putting surgical gloves on
14. Med-shot preparing HIV testing kit
15. Close-up, pipette and test card and solution
16. Med shot, social worker pricking the person’s finger after disinfecting skin
17. Close up, putting drop of blood on test card
18. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Olena Pavlishina, Doctor from the Lviv Clinical Hospital:
“As a doctor, I am very pleased with the cooperation with Alliance Global. Thanks to this cooperation we have the opportunity to be in touch with both internally displaced people and people who do not trust doctors much. This part of the work that was previously done by health workers is now being done by social workers and civil society organisations."
19. Pan right, a person living in the shelter in the communal kitchen
20. Close-up, person drinking
21. Pan right, bunk beds in a bedroom
22. Wide shot, bunk bed
23. Med shot, man living in shelter putting shoes on

NOTE TO EDITORS / PRODUCERS: The broadcast of these images are not under embargo. Please use the images in the context described. Unless indicated the HIV status, sexual orientation or any other characteristic of people in the images are unknown and should not be described inappropriately. If in doubt, contact UNAIDS: Communications@unaids.org

STORYLINE:

In the center of Lviv – a Western city in Ukraine – a large apartment is actually much more than that: It is a shelter for displaced LGBTQ+ Ukrainians.

This is a project of the Alliance Global, the largest Ukrainian LGBTQ+ organization. Since the war began a year ago, more than 7.9 million Ukrainians have fled abroad and another 6.5 million moved within the country.

Due to growing demand to find accommodation for internally displaced people that Alliance Global experienced, several organizations, including the Fondation de France, International Office of Migration (IOM) and UNAIDS’ Emergency Ukraine Fund, helped them set up a shelter.

Up to ten people can stay here. The shelter’s administrator, Vadim Pryzenko, sees this as a lifeline. “Our clients can get not only a place to live but also food and social and psychological support,” he said. “For those who are not living here, we provide humanitarian aid, food, hygienic products, and also individual financial support,” Pryzenko said.

Generators provide electricity and there is free internet access. The shelter also provides health care and HIV services. Ukraine has the second - after the Russian Federation- biggest HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (240 000 people are living with HIV according to UNAIDS 2022 estimates).

The country was making good progress in the AIDS response before the war – increasing the number of people living with HIV on antiretroviral treatment to nearly 60 percent.

However, due to their destruction or occupation, more than 30 medical institutions providing HIV services have had to stop their operations, and logistics and supply chains have been broken. Despite this, Ukraine continues to help people living with HIV.

Civil society has played a crucial role in adapting their response, engaging and reaching people in need. “As a doctor, I am very pleased with the cooperation with Alliance Global,” said Dr. Olena Pavlishina from the Lviv Clinical Hospital. “Thanks to this cooperation we have the opportunity to be in touch with both internally displaced people and people who do not trust doctors much.”

In the past, she explains, a lot of the work was handled by health professionals. “This part of the work that was previously done by health workers is now being done by social workers and civil society organisations,” she said.