Kyrgyzstan is widely considered to be a key drug transit route between Afghanistan and Russia (with Europe often being the final destination). The number of drug users in Kyrgyzstan is estimated by the UNODC to be 50,000 – or roughly 1% of the population. Since its sovereignty, the Kyrgyz government has failed to protect itself from drug trafficking in general – and the subsequent increase of intravenous drug use in particular. The spread of the use of heroin in Kyrgyzstan and created an urgent demand for increased drug treatment and prevention programs – particularly ones targeted at preventing the spread of HIV infection. The Kyrgyz government itself has lacked the resources necessary to tackle this problem and has relied almost entirely on the international community for support and assistance in this area.

Previous efforts to tackle this problem, before the Global Fund arrived, where generally piecemeal, pilot projects with short-term perspectives and generally lacking sound, cohesive strategies (a now reoccurring criticism of the donor community in general in Kyrgyzstan).

“We have a concrete task to reach 15% of all intravenous drug users (7,500 people) by the end of the second year of our activity. Today only 6% of IDUs are being reached by outreach programs”, said Subanbaev.

The first stage of the Global Fund’s actions are targeted at reducing the spread of HIV infections by supporting HIV prophylactics programs, reducing youth vulnerability, and providing for greater security and screening of donated blood supplies.

The second stage targets assisting people presently living with AIDS. “We intend to buy generics of anti-retroviral (ARV) medicals. Unfortunately, the current criteria for patient selection to receive ARVs are a positive clinical diagnosis by a central and state run laboratory. We have set a goal to reach 100% of all people that need this treatment,” Subanbaev said – implying that cutting red-tape and decentralizing the diagnosis and registration process is a necessary step towards progress.

Sultan Mamytov, a member of the NGO “Rainbow” which focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention, stated that “If the Global Fund would support its Kyrgyzstan project at full funding, we could reach our HIV/AIDS reduction targets. Also the success of the project will depend on the work of the Coordination Committee, the Project Administration, and its executive team. At present, it’s difficult to assess the role of Global Fund, because full-scale activity is yet to be observed”.

Global Fund Portfolio Manager Valeriy Cherniavskiy, during his recent arrival to Kyrgyzstan, gave a high mark to the NGO’s involvement; and stated his intention to accelerate the process of disseminating the second disbursement of funds (1.315 million USD) to continue working on this massive campaign. Global Fund is set to begin receiving these funds this month.