Supporting people who use drugs in Uganda - Gift's story
www.aidsalliance.org - "HIV is a complex issue. Before I started working in harm reduction, I had no idea about people who use drugs. I only knew the stereotypes. But my work has shown me that instead of looking at HIV as an issue in isolation, we need to get to the roots of it, as support needs to come from every angle.
The Uganda Harm Reduction Network (UHRN), a coalition of community based organisations and peer groups formed by people who used to use drugs, now exists in many districts. In Kampala, where I work, there are 14 staff members. We have familiarised ourselves with most of the drug ‘hotspot’ dens in the city and have been able to establish trust in the people we find there. We do this by building relationships with representatives at each hot spot who will then introduce us to other people. After an outreach operation, we often find we have more than 100 cases to manage." (Photo: Mukono Uganda/neiljs/flickr, CC BY 2.0)