 | | Crystal Meth: piloting Harm Reduction for shabu users in Indonesia | Crystal meth is a popular drug in Indonesia. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of people who use meth, locally known under the street name shabu.
However, so far, harm reduction services don’t target meth users. Mainline and local partner Karisma started an innovative pilot in Indonesia to change this.
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 | | We were @ AIDS2016 in Durban | Mainline’s international programme manager Machteld (Mac) Busz attended the International AIDS Conference 2016 that was held in July in Durban, South Africa.
The absolute harm reduction-highlight was the Networking Zone for People who Use Drugs (PWUD) in the Global Village. Much needed, because despite the very elaborate conference programme, a very modest podium was offered for drug user issues. | |
|  | | Mainline is looking for an intern! | Are you the one who's going to help us assess the feasibility of one of our business ideas to set up a social enterprise. The internship is mostly based in Amsterdam, but includes a trip to South Africa for conducting field research. Interested?
Click on the red button and read the (Dutch) vacancy or contact Machteld Busz via m.busz@mainline.nl for more information. Positive replies are welcomed until 16 September 2016. | |
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| Mainline Baseline Studies | | Joost Breeksema, with his energetic smile, twinkly eyes and psychedelic fashion sense seems an unlikely candidate to be conducting desk research. However, with his years of “Mainlining” as a trainer, M&E Officer and other assorted roles, he is now venturing into the unchartered wilderness of the Baseline Study.
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| South-south exchange @ AIDS 2016 | Mainline sponsored partners from MEWA in Kenya and from Youth Vision in Nepal to join the AIDS2016 conference. Local South African partner TB/HIV Care facilitated a field visit. Together with the Durban team of outreach workers the group went to different hot spots in town to observe the outreach work and learn about the local drug scene.
Rajesh (Youth Vision): "Although all of us are very experienced in harm reduction work, the local scene struck us as extremely harsh. The people we met were in poor health conditions and often malnourished. Most had visible scars on their faces or arms".
The Durban team did fantastic work and had good contact with their clients. However, they are limited in what they can do and the needs of people are overwhelming. At this moment, little can be done for people who smoke or snort their drugs. Harm reduction is completely unavailable for non-injecting drug users.
Both the Nepalese partner Rajesh as well as the Kenyan partner Abdalla noted the isolated position of most drug users in Durban. “They seem to have no one who cares for them,” Abdalla said. “In Kenya, you are never that alone; there is always someone - a family member or old friend who still cares for you somehow”.
Mainline thanks TB/HIV Care for showing us around, for the interesting discussions and for this very special morning! | |
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