SCOPE: Study Trip from NGO Cohort (Ukraine) to New Generation NGO (Armenia)

I live and work in Kyiv, Ukraine. Since 2020 I have become the Executive director of the NGO Cohort, working for the rights and interests of trans*people in Ukraine. Our work ranges from advocacy, mobilizing the trans*community, increasing visibility through interaction with the media, training medical professionals to work with trans*people, providing them with trans competent medical care.

We work primarily with trans people, as well as their parents and partners. Our clients often belong to cross-groups such as sex workers, refugees and migrants, transgender people with HIV, trans parents and people who inject drugs. Often, we are the entry point too prevention – we provide peer-to-peer consultations, redirect to doctors, psychologists, service organizations, while using a high degree of ethics in communication. At the same time, we can provide humanitarian assistance with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs, other medicines with a prescription from a doctor.

In March 2023, I applied for a study trip scholarship under the EATG’s SCOPE programme in May 2023. My visit took me from Kyiv (Ukraine) through Moldova to the South Caucasus, to Armenia. It is there, in the capital – the city of Yerevan, that the central office of the New Generation NGO I wanted to visit is located.

It is very easy to register public organisations in Armenia, so you can see several trans*, LGBTQI, feminist NGOs, as well as NGOs in the field of prevention and treatment of HIV, hepatitis, STIs and others. I chose the New Generation because I knew President Sergey Gabrielyan (we were on the ECOM Steering Council together in 2019-2022) and other employees. I also knew about the collaboration of the New Generation with the Global Fund through HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs in Armenia. For 25 years, the New Generation NGO has been working with marginalised key populations in Armenia. For all these reasons, people know this organisation and seek their help when needed.

The main office of the organization is located on Hovhannes Tumanyan Street. Going up to the second floor, you find yourself in the holy of holies of professionals and activists, where I was shown both the structure of the NGO and met the main actors – who are the social workers, those providing legal support, social media marketing, those who administers the drop center, and so on.

We then went to the shelter/community center, In of the apartment of the residential building, there a community center for the organisation’s clients, locals but also refugees from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Similar community centers for people living with HIV and their partners, LGBTQI+ people, or MSM have opened in two other large cities of Armenia – Gyumri and Vanadzor.

New Generation works on two areas human rights protection and health with representatives of key populations. If you live in Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor, you can come to the office of the organization to receive the necessary service or package of services – peer-to-peer consultations, friendly psychologist and lawyer, legal support, free training for refugees (during my trip it was a hairdressing art), distribution of condoms and lubricants, literature, referral to a specific medical specialist. You can also, take a test for HIV, hepatitis, STIs in a special room and, if the result is positive, you can expect to be accompanied by an outreach worker, for example, to the AIDS Center in Yerevan.

I then returned to the community center which consists of a large 3-room apartment with a living room where visitors and local LGBTQI+ youth play board games, listen to music, and talk. I introduced myself by explaining who I am, why I came to visit and asked to participate in a card game. We drank tea with cakes. At the same time, I am curious to examine the center – in one of the rooms there are two-level beds for 6 people, in another roomy room with poufs, a monitor, where psychotherapeutic groups, self-help groups take place. There is also a room for leisure for watching movies, lectures, webinars, mini-training and other activities.

At the end of the meeting of the first day and a tour of the Mamikon shelter, the person showing me around, asked whether I wanted to advise a trans girl, a refugee from Ukraine – about receiving hormone replacement therapy from an experienced endocrinologist, which we decided to do the next morning. In the meantime, I was told that all the remaining time for the New Generation employees was scheduled to prepare for May 17 – International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Transphobia and Interphobia (IDAHOBIT). NGO President Sergey Gabrielyan kindly invited me on May 17 to a round table with the heads and representatives of 8 embassies of different states, where leaders of LGBTQI + initiative groups and NGOs, MSM and HIV service leaders, human rights activists, journalists and people who make decisions in the field of protection would participate.

As agreed, the next morning I returned to the community center again and conducted a 4-hour consultation with the trans-refugee from Ukraine, who had lived in Russia for the past few years. I understand how difficult it is to get high-quality medical advice in Armenia – you simply will not find a single specialist who understands endocrinology for trans people. It was decided to consult a Ukrainian doctor remotely. Fortunately, hormones in Armenia can be bought without a prescription at a pharmacy, but that’s a completely different story…

Then I visited two trans organizations – NGO Spirit and Right Side NGO , and got acquainted with their work to protect the rights of trans people, LGBIQ+, women and girls. I also spent several hours in Pink Armenia, where my colleague Armen Agadzhanov, who moved from Kiev to Yerevan at the beginning of the war, works (more about the organization here: https://www.instagram.com/pinkarmenia/).

On May 17, the third day of the study visit to Yerevan, I talked with New Generation outreach workers about the methods they use to engage with people, about relevant services in Armenia, access challenges and relations with local authorities.

Trans people and sex workers can access PrEP for free at the office of the organisation. Note!!! – under an agreement with the AIDS Center of Armenia, an organisation receives PrEP for 15-20 people for free. This was the case in 2022, but at the moment there are difficulties in obtaining PrEP and at the time of my visit the agreement for 2023 had not been signed yet. MSM, LGBTQI+ people, sex workers can also receive PEP at the AIDS Center of Armenia. When it comes to PEP, the New Generation acts more as an entry point and gives recommendations, redirection to the Center. There are times where doctors at the AIDS Center asked for about $ 100 (in Armenian drams), which is a high price, when it was said that these drugs were given free of charge, and at the AIDS Center in Yerevan.

I learned that oral self-testing for HIV (HIVST) has become a popular testing method, especially among young people, as well as partners of MSM and trans people. To be completely accurate in the description of the self-testing method, it should be noted that the outreach worker is personally present with the client during oral self-testing. It can be done in any safe place, car, park, at the client’s home or work, if it is comfortable.

As for HIV testing, the latest statistics up to May 2023 inclusive can be viewed here: https://ngngo.net/en/hiv_statistic_eng/

Finally, I took part in the annual conference dedicated to IDAHOBIT. The heads of diplomatic departments of 8 countries, representatives of all key population groups, including trans people, sex workers, MSM leaders were invited to it, social workers, journalists, Armenian human rights activists, as well as guests like me were present 😊

The President of the New Generation NGO, Sergey Gabrielyan, spoke about the successes in protecting the rights of LGBTQT+ people, followed by ambassadors, other politicians and public opinion leaders among the civil sectors.

P.S. I had a lot of different impressions and information from my May trip in the status of a “study visit”. I had a chance to talk with dozens of fantastic colleagues and representatives of key communities during my 72 hours of stay in Yerevan, which was a pity to leave … and therefore I decided to return to Yerevan in June, just writing this blog on the road to my Caucasian friends.

Many thanks to EATG for choosing my candidacy for the study trip and all kinds of information and financial support.

In May 2023, I travelled from Ukraine to Armenia to visit New Generation NGO and the shelter/community center. One of the highlights on the trip was attending the local annual conference dedicated to International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Transphobia and Interphobia (IDAHOBIT) on May 17.

Anastasiia Yeva Domani

Executive Director – NGO Cohort

EATG’s SCOPE project aims to strengthen the skills and knowledge of community health workers, advocates and researchers in the field of HIV combination prevention. It focuses on communities that are inadequately served by policies and programmes.

About the study trips

The SCOPE project provided two individual study trips for community health workers and advocates involved in HIV combination prevention service delivery in the WHO European region to carry out individual site visits to local community-based/led organisations.

Study trips provided the opportunity for community health workers and advocates in the area of HIV prevention to:

• Learn from peers about innovative, inclusive, and integrated HIV prevention services that can be adapted to their local setting
• Establish and/or strengthen partnerships with a host organisation(s).

The SCOPE project has been developed by the EATG and was made possible through a grant from ViiV Healthcare Europe Ltd.