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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts: 
Schecter, Kate 
Program Officer, Russia and the Caucasus
Washington kschecter@aiha.com

 
US-funded program will help Russian communities develop and implement comprehensive HIV prevention and treatment programs, integrated social services

Washington, DC, September 8, 2006—The American International Health Alliance (AIHA) has been awarded a grant from the Open World Leadership Center at the US Library of Congress and will, for the fourth year, provide civic leaders and healthcare professionals from Russia with an opportunity to get a first-hand look at effective community-based health initiatives in the United States. 

Working closely with the Open World Leadership Center and local partners, AIHA helped identify 25 participants—10 from Orenburg Oblast and 15 from St. Petersburg—for this year’s Community Leadership Development Program (CLDP) exchanges. Russian communities involved in the 2006 exchanges will join AIHA’s regional network of more than 350 Open World/CLDP alumni in some 50 communities spanning eight oblasts. These delegates will learn about the healthy communities model that is the hallmark of many AIHA partnerships and programs, traveling to four communities in Iowa where they will witness examples of comprehensive social support programs and integrated HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care services.  

This year’s Open World/CLDP exchanges—which will take place October 19-30—will focus on two main themes: “Mobilizing to Address HIV/AIDS” and “Mobilizing to Provide Social Services.” The program will help the Russian delegates effectively leverage community resources to provide socially-oriented health services and to better address their country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

The 12-day program will begin in Washington, DC, with an orientation to AIHA’s healthy communities model and a reception at the Russian Embassy. Participants will then spend eight days with a host family in the United States learning about community-oriented planning processes and viewing effective HIV/AIDS prevention, care, treatment, and social support programs in action.  

Delegates from both healthcare and social services programs will be introduced to local governance and civic institutions. In addition, delegates participating in the healthcare program will observe the US healthcare system and HIV/AIDS services delivered by American healthcare facilities, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and faith-based groups. Additionally, the delegates will be introduced to organizations that deliver social services, NGOs and media outlets working to raise public awareness about HIV/AIDS, and advocacy and fundraising experts.    

Open World is a unique, nonpartisan initiative of the US Congress that brings emerging leaders from Russia and other participating countries to the United States to work with their counterparts and experience American civil society first-hand. More than 10,500 Open World participants have been hosted in more than 1,500 communities in all 50 US states since the program’s inception in 1999. 

Both Open World and AIHA have extensive expertise in bringing groups of Russian political, civic, and healthcare leaders to cities across the United States for intensive, short-term professional exchanges designed to increase participants’ understanding of effective methods of providing comprehensive, targeted health services.

Created in 1992 by a consortium of major healthcare provider associations and professional medical education organizations, AIHA establishes and manages twinning partnerships and between health-related institutions in the United States and their counterparts in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, and the Caribbean. Since its inception, AIHA has supported more than 125 partnerships linking dedicated volunteers in the United States with communities, institutions, and individual colleagues overseas in a concerted effort to improve health service delivery in countries with limited resources. Operating under various cooperative agreements and grants from US and international donor agencies including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); the US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); the World Health Organization (WHO); the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and the German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), AIHA, its partnerships, and complementary programs represent one of the US healthcare sector’s most coordinated responses to global health issues.

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