Armenian Trans* People Working Group CBE-News Meeting-discussions News

FIRST SEX WORKERS AND TRANS* PEOPLE NATIONAL CONFERENCE WAS HELD

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On April 14, 2022, the first sex workers and trans* people national conference took place in Yerevan, bringing together many participants from all over Armenia.

 

This year, the conference was dedicated to identifying the needs of Armenian sex worker and trans* communities in the healthcare sector, identifying problems, and finding ways to address them through the eyes of community representatives.

 

The first part of the conference was dedicated to the discussion of HIV prevention services and programs in Armenia, the progress of programs, gaps, and how to address them. Hasmik Harutyunyan, the Global  Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Program Coordination Group Manager, and Naira Sergeyan, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist and representatives of RA Ministry of Health, were invited to participate in the discussion. The discussion was facilitated by Sergey Gabrielyan, President of New Generation Humanitarian NGO, and Camelia Kandiliani, the President of National Trans Coalition human rights NGO. The participants actively discussed the services provided in the field of HIV, talked about the quantity and quality of preventive materials, the availability of services, the problems that arose, the vision to solve them and many other issues. After listening to the opinions, concerns and suggestions of the participants, the representative of the RA Ministry of Health Hasmik Harutyunyan presented in detail the implemented works and improvements, gave answers to many worrying questions.

 

In the second part, the participants talked about the COVID-19 epidemic and its effects on the sex workers and trans* communities. The role of the community-based non-governmental organizations and their assistance provided to the vulnerable groups in mitigating the effects of the epidemic was also highly appreciated by the participants.

 

The last session was facilitated by Hmayak Avetisyan, New Generation Humanitarian NGO Capacity Building Coordinator, Member of the Armenian Trans* People Working Group, Member of the Country Coordinating Mechanism against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Armenia (CCM), who spoke on the decision-making process and the importance of the community engagement. A number of issues were discussed, which were proposed to be presented during the regular CCM session. Some of the participants expressed a desire to be involved in the next CCM session as participants.

 

The first sex workers and trans* people national conference was held in a very active atmosphere of discussions and questions and answers. The participants were given the opportunity to talk about their problems, to offer solutions independently.

 

 

The conference was organized at the initiative and by the efforts of 3 member organizations of the Armenian Trans* People Working Group within the framework of the “Trans Map in EECA” project – New Generation Humanitarian NGO, National Trans Coalition human rights NGO, Fearless human rights NGO.