The TB Europe Coalition visit to Belarus

As part of a TB Europe Coalition (TBEC) series of field visit, three members of TBEC visited Belarus in November 2014.

These visits have been to countries in the WHO European Region with a high burden of multidrug-resistant TB. To date TBEC has visited Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus and Tajikistan.

TBEC members met with several individuals and organisations in Minsk, Belarus, interested in TB. In addition to these meetings, the team participated in a two-day Conference “Community role in the life of TB affected people through Global Fund (GF) processes”.

Defeat TB Together (DTT) facilitated the visit to Minsk. DTT is a republic-wide NGO, formed mostly of TB patients, doctors and nurses, starting to work on advocacy, care and support.

The main objectives of the TBEC visit to Belarus, as with previous country visits, were to:

• Understand in greater detail the challenges for civil society organisations working on TB or related areas (including the financing of TB information giving and the broader local NGO landscape);
• To further involve Belarus NGOs in future TBEC activities;
• Explore potential opportunities for donors to support local NGOs in TB work.
• Co-facilitate a two-day workshop (or Conference) “Community role in the life of TB affected people through GF processes”

The report is available in both Russian and English languages.

Source: TB Europe Coalition