The “Need Help” Foundation launches a fundraiser for consultations for people with HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis

The “Need Help” Foundation is launching a fundraiser for the “Equal Protects Equal” project , implemented by the non-profit partnership “E.V.A.”

As part of the “Equal Protects Equal” project, people living with HIV, tuberculosis and viral hepatitis can receive free consultation. Peer consultants, also living with similar diseases, will help you understand the legislation and apply it correctly in order to receive state-guaranteed help. In difficult cases, the project offers consultation with a professional lawyer.

Most often, patients who are faced with refusal to receive life-saving medications or operations due to their HIV infection turn to peer consultants. Often, health workers illegally label their medical records as HIV+, disclosing their status against the patient’s will. “This project is a real mirror of society. Such patients, as a rule, are not very legally literate, they often have difficult life circumstances and often already have negative experience of interacting with official structures. But I would not like to attribute everything to the fact that the state is not doing something or that doctors are somehow behaving incorrectly. This is just the situation now. Many simply do not know that HIV infection cannot serve as a basis for refusal of medical care,” project coordinator Svetlana Gavrilova noted in an interview with TD.

Peer consultants answer questions by phone, Skype or any other messenger. Personal meetings and consultations are also possible, now the non-profit partnership “E. V. A.” 63 members in 23 regions of Russia. “It’s great that there are people who, having gone through their own difficulties, are ready to share their experiences. They are constructive. Sometimes their help simply helps to build the right dialogue with officials or doctors, and it turns out that the problem can be solved quite easily,” said Gavrilova.

The Need Help Foundation is raising funds to pay for twelve months of work for six peer consultants and a lawyer, as well as administrative expenses. You can help the project by making a one-time or monthly donation.