'To promote the philosophy and practice of harm reduction internationally through program development, training, advocacy and research'.
CHR is fervent about working in partnership, particularly in implementation, where our aim is to add value to whatever relationship we nurture. A prime example of this is our continued work in Indonesia, where CHR and Burnet Indonesia supported (via funding from the Levis Strauss Foundation) our local NGO partner Lembaga Kasih Indonesia (LKI) to deliver appropriate community based responses to drug use in the district of Bekasi, West Java. We also implemented evidence based harm reduction interventions with other partners throughout Asia.
There is a huge demand for harm reduction services across the globe, especially in the Asia region (where much of CHR’s work is focused and where injecting drug use continues to be the main vector for the spread of blood-borne viral infection). Capacity building has so many facets, one of which is to build a skills base of human and other resources to ensure new cohorts of harm reduction specialists are in place for the future. In 2006 we delivered capacity building inputs, amongst others to LKI in Indonesia, as well as to the AusAID funded Indonesian HIV Prevention and Care Project; through the Fund for HIV/AIDS Myanmar program to our multiple partners in Myanmar; to AusAID’s Xinjiang HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Project, which now has a two year extension. In response to the Malaysian government’s commitment to harm reduction, CHR provided capacity building inputs on monitoring and evaluation and coverage, and in India we provided inputs to the DfID Challenge Fund project, that is both initiating and scaling-up harm reduction in nine states in the country.
Recent years have been successful in attracting funding for domestic research. Creating the opportunity to further our collaboration with our Burnet Institute colleagues at the Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health Research, with which we share two domestic projects, each of which has broader international relevance. The first examines the prevalence and patterns of injecting related injury and disease in
At the international level we commenced a research capacity building study under the AusAID Illicit Drugs Initiative on amphetamine use in
As is clear from the above, alliance and partnership is at the core of our approach to all our activities, from working alongside NGOs in implementing community-level interventions, partnering with Australian Management Groups on large bilateral projects (such as ARHP and the DfID funded Central Asian Regional HIV/AIDS Project in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) to developing research projects (such as our amphetamines research in Laos PDR, Cambodia and Thailand). This also entails being actively involved in existing and emerging networks. In the former category we have strong links to the International Harm Reduction Association and its various regional harm reduction networks. An example of emerging alliances is our proactive involvement with the Pacific Drug and Alcohol Research Network, for which CHR retains the role of secretariat for 2006/07 and organised the second network meeting in Fiji in July 2006.
We are confident that every area of our work consistently advocates for the need for harm reduction as a pragmatic public health response to the complex nature of drug related harm. Yet there are some areas of our work with a specific focus on advocacy. Advocacy can be through the provision of resource materials such as the India and Mekong Modules for harm reduction, the Policy and Procedures Guidelines in Myanmar and the antiretroviral treatment (ART) literacy materials provided for IDU in Thailand. This latter initiative was a response to the increasing access to ART across the Asia Region. With this in mind CHR partnered with CARE Thailand (Raks Thai) to develop a training manual that will assist in advocating for equal access to HIV treatment for drug users. CHR provided a staff member to the ARHP as Advocacy and Policy Advisor to develop an advocacy strategy for China, Vietnam and Myanmar.
ARHP also developed a manual to guide advocacy activities between implementers of harm reduction activities and law enforcement officials. In conjunction with District AIDS Commission in Bekasi, Indonesia, CHR and Burnet Indonesia conduct a workshop with local Islamic religious leaders focusing of the importance of their involvement in local response to HIV and drug use. There were a number of positive outcomes to this workshop, including a greater understanding of the issues and the formation of HIV Concerned Muslims Forum. CHR hopes to build on this experience across the Region.