My activism began in 2010 following the election of the regional representative of the All-Russian public organization, with the awareness that if you really want change, you simply must do it yourself. At first as a member of the Positive Kuban initiative group, and then, from 2013, professionally in the Peer Dialogue community organization. Since there had previously not been a community organization in our region, the founders chose the title. Together with my friends we created a mutual support group, developed counseling, and built communication.
The driving force of the epidemic remains fear and ignorance. Fear of the virus, testing, services, patient associations that can only work systematically to inform and stimulate increased knowledge. In community work I particularly enjoy interacting with people and their real emotions. Again and again I tremble when I come across the problems of people living with HIV who are fighting for their health and their health of their loved ones.
I would like my region to work more effectively with justifiable methods to support people with HIV and for HIV prevention so that they work without violating the lawful rights and interests of people with HIV. Working with the high class specialists at EVA helps to do things that thus far no one has done in my region qualitatively.