russia
HIV/AIDS in Russia
ORECHEVO-ZUYEVO, MOSCOW REGION, RUSSIA Orechevo - Zuyevo maternity house, where Orphans of HIV parents and babies born from HIV mothers are held for medical examination before being transferred to state Orphanages around the country. Pictured is Lena who is awaiting the completion of her screening and HIV tests before being passed on to a state Orphanage. (Photo by David Gillanders)
russia
In the late 90’s I read an article in the Sunday Times about a city in Russia, Ekaterinburg, that had declared a zero tolerance stance on intravenous drug use. The approach seemed extreme – and the more I looked into it the more I became intrigued.
It also seemed that Russia had an almost underground problem with very fast rates of infection of HIV.
A few months later I got on a plane for the first of many trips to and from Russia and then Ukraine over the next decade or so.
Ultimately I ended up meeting and getting somewhat sucked into the lives of a group of homeless children in Ukraine – but looking through contact prints from yesteryear made me want to pull together an edit from my first couple of years work in Russia.