Ukraine: The role of coordinator of information ASTAU

Svetlana Sharamok information is the coordinator of Defenders Association Replacement Therapy in Ukraine [UKR] (ASTAU, for its acronym in English), which is a member of the project "Drop-In Center" Rising Voices. The ASTAU has also been an engine [in] many of the major initiatives of citizen media that have been presented during the past year. Svetlana began working in late 2011 ASTAU. His responsibilities, being a professional journalist, including updating the website of the association, your Facebook account and promoting the work of the association between the Ukrainian public. In this interview with Rising Voices by e-mail us about his person, his work in the association and its future plans to use citizen media to raise awareness about your organization and the people they help.

Svetlana Sharamok, coordinator of information ASTAU.

Rising Voices: Can you talk a little about yourself?

Svetlana Sharamok: I'm young, beautiful and happy. Before working as a journalist. I like to create and carry out various social projects, to do something for people to see things from day to day, like garbage or asphalt, from another perspective, for example, putting gloves and hats to trees going over cold in winter. I also love traveling.

RV: How did you join the association and what is your job as coordinator of information?

SS: Working as a journalist, I never thought I would incorporate the association. I do not even know existed. When I came to know Olga [en] [Olga Beliayeva, director of the association] and then I saw my picture published in the 'Konoplianaya Pravda' [a newsletter published by the Association], I realized I could work here. But it has happened much faster than he had imagined. I started working in the association only for a few months, but I realized that here there is no word "impossible", we can do it all. If you do not know something, we can learn. Maybe that's the philosophy that I like in my work.

I should be in contact with members of the association, update your Facebook page, the news [UKR] on their website ... These are my primary responsibilities. I have much work to do, but is diverse and interesting. Now I often go to the centers that performed the substitution therapy [in], I meet with doctors, nurses, patients, and I have a feeling that soon I will meet also with the police. Recently, before the election of directors of the association, I met with many of the activists and regional representatives.

RV: Can you describe a typical day of work?

SS: I am the coordinator of information. For example, my plan today is to call about 80 members of the association, which means that I will get well wishes of about 50 people, and I look forward to your wishes come true. Some share with me the news that their children went to school, someone tell me who has found work, some members are prepared to go on TV talk show in a drug ... often I call someone for the first time, but I have the impression that I'm talking to an old friend.

In the morning, usually visit centers that performed the opioid substitution therapy and meet with doctors and patients. Patients are in a hurry, need to take medication, and run to work. Some come with family, not because they have the power, but to protect them from the police, although this does not always help.

RV: What are your future plans as coordinator of information ASTAU?

SS: I would like to produce a short documentary on the people involved in the substitution therapy. I do not understand the debate that exists about replacement therapy to opioids (ORT, for its acronym in English). Often I meet people who are part of this therapy and look like people who take insulin more than drug addicts, but obviously you meet different personalities ... My other plan is to increase the activism of bloggers [UKR], patients in substitution therapy to opiates, the Internet, both Facebook and on our website, because I think his experience is interesting and useful.

RV: How would you describe the members of the association?

SS: I was once asked how to describe a former drug addict. I thought long before answering. Actually, who are patients of substitution therapy? They have no earmarks of being a community of cyclists and lovers of marijuana. These are people who have had very different lives and different careers. Igor makes documentaries about the lives of women, the family of Sergey and Lena works in a charity and help people to reduce the damage caused by drugs, Eugene is a pharmacist, Olga is the director of a charity. Life is as it is and do not trust people who have been addicted to drugs.

RV: What do you think that the association does for its members? How do they help?

SS: For many people, the association is everything. Sometimes, you call these people and hear them talk about how to fight for the continuation of treatment [en] [that methadone is available in other medical facilities], and then a few days later see on the news that the same city ​​patients received the medication in the hospital for the first time. Some have joined the association simply to know where to go and whom to contact when they need assistance. We are like a kind of intermediary between the medical personnel, public health officials and people who undergo substitution treatment or want to.

Posted by Maryna Reshetnyak · Translated by Candelaria Reymundo · View original post [en] · Comments (0)
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