Drug Demand Reduction (DDR) Programme - Central Asia

PSI works to provide information, education, and activities to help at-risk youth make informed healthy choices about behaviours related to drug use and sex.PSI's youth centres are located in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Khojand and Khorog (Tajikistan), and Osh (Kyrgyzstan), 4 of the main points on the route that carries Afghan opium and heroin to destination markets in Russia and Europe. The DDR programme focuses on high-risk youth in neighbourhoods where drug supply and use are high. PSI indicates that young people living in these communities are more likely to be exposed to HIV, either as a result of sharing injection equipment or through unsafe sex with someone who is infected.

Organisers claim that this programme is built on the perspectives of people who have lived through the issues on which it focuses. For example, peer-to-peer education is central: Pre-injecting youth (those most likely to use or inject heroin or other drugs) educate other pre-injecting youth. As Tashkent youth centre Director Marat Mirzadjanov explains, "The lives of virtually all our peer educators have been touched in some way by heroin. Many of them are siblings, children or friends of current or former heroin users. Some are former users themselves. Because of their experience and direct knowledge of the realities of drug use, our peer educators are perceived as credible sources of information and peer support by the target group."

The programme also provides fun, healthy activities to serve as alternatives to drug use. Organisers explain that, after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, youth clubs and services fell by the wayside. Youth - and especially disadvantaged youth in the drug communities that PSI addresses - have had very few options for extra-curricular activities. In that context, the PSI youth centres aim to provide a wide range of attractive activities for youth, including sports clubs, language lessons, computer and job training, rap and break dance classes, hiking and outdoor clubs, as well as professional youth-friendly counseling and social support.

Youth, Drug Use, Health.

PSI/Central Asia is a key partner in a consortium of NGOs working on a 5-year programme administered by the Alliance for Open Society International and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The objective is to identify those subgroups of youth at highest risk of becoming injecting drug users (IDUs), and to equip them with the knowledge and skills to make informed, healthy decisions about drug use and sexual behaviour. PSI is developing a range of activities in addition to this regional network of youth centres in high-risk communities, such as peer education outreach to at-risk youth, educational materials, and a mass media campaign to facilitate more open discussion of drug use and HIV/AIDS.

According to organisers, injecting drug use is the primary mode of HIV transmission in Central Asia. PSI is reaching IDUs through partnerships with local NGOs and public organisations by implementing outreach, capacity building, advocacy, condom promotion, and the development of BCC materials and training programmes. PSI plans include piloting a clean needle/syringe campaign (independently funded), as well as a research-based pilot on changing IDU behaviour.