Svitlana Moroz (Ukraine)

Svitlana Moroz’s career improving the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS began with her own personal transformation.

In Ukraine, about 70 percent of the half-million people living with HIV became infected through the use of injectable drugs, and a quarter of those people are under 20. Svitlana was one of them. She had been using drugs since she was 16 years old.

At 19, while attending Donetsk National University, Svitlana Moroz became engaged to be married – and found herself pregnant. She went for a routine prenatal check-up and her Doctor did some blood work. He broke the news to her: she was HIV-positive.

“I was in the fourth month of my pregnancy, I was going to the university and was going to be married two months later. It was an enormous shock,” she said.

Once she got the news, she stopped using drugs immediately. Her son was born free of HIV in November 1998. “It was such a relief. I am really a lucky woman.”

At first, Svitlana kept quiet about her HIV status because of concern that the stigma attached to AIDS in Ukraine would affect her son. The only people there who knew, she said, were her doctor and her husband, who is also HIV-positive.

But she found it hard to live a hidden life. In 2000, while she was still in college, her doctor suggested she visit a group in Kiev called the All-Ukraine Network of People Living with HIV. It offered formal and informal education on preventing the spread of HIV while living with it, and worked to reduce the public stigma.

“I was really impressed. It was the first time I had seen people openly living with HIV.” She became a group volunteer and representative to the group for the Donetsk region. “I became vocal because I stopped being afraid for myself, afraid for the future. I received emotional support and my life changed.”

Eventually, she became the regional representative of the Ukraine Network. But, she felt she needed to improve her knowledge and skills so she could be better equipped in her work.

She heard of CEDPA’s 2005 WomenLead in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS workshop after the deadline for applications had passed, but she appealed to be included because, she said, she wanted to understand the gender dimensions of the AIDS pandemic.

The other workshop participants impressed her with their friendship and energy, and their leadership of similar organizations throughout the world. She says she gained new compassion for mothers of infants infected with HIV, and developed a new determination to speak out in public on the need for anti-retroviral drug treatment for expectant mothers living with HIV.

Today, she applies these skills in her work at the All-Ukraine Network, and in her work as board chairwoman of the Svitanok (Sunrise) Club, a charity organization that serves 300 adults and 120 children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

And last year, she led sessions at CEDPA’s Advancing Women’s Leadership and Advocacy for AIDS Action Asia Regional workshop, transferring knowledge she gained from her training to the next generation of leaders in the AIDS fight.

(March 2010)