Dear Friends!
The Andrey Rylkov Foundation (ARF) needs your help again. Since the start of its crowd funding campaign through Global Giving, over 100 caring friends of the foundation like you donated a total of over 20,000 USD to ARF. Though the 20,000 wasn’t enough for them to get the van they wanted for mobile services, it is helping them keep their life-saving services going during some very hard times.
Last year, there were times when they kept working on a voluntary basis when funding for salaries ran out and the 20, 000 USD helped them get much needed supplies. They served over 1000 people who use drugs in Moscow through outreach visits that they carried out 4 – 5 times a week. They provided services including distributing over 70,000 syringes, HIV and HCV testing and counselling (40% and 75% of HIV and HCV tests respectively were positive by the way!…), street lawyers service, case management and more. They gave out 2062 doses of Naloxone which saved 223 lives (that they know about!). This New Year, they helped Father Frost bring gifts to the young children of their participants. Read more about ARF’s achievements in 2014 here.
The money not only kept their services going, it reminded them and their program participants that there a lot of people who care about them. It is unusual to “crowdsource” funding for harm reduction work but ARF (with your help) did it!
This year they need your help again. In June they expect support for the Global Fund to start – but there is a long 4 months until then and supplies are running low. On Wednesday, March 18, Global Giving is having a Bonus Day and will match donations by 30% so your support will be magnified. They provide the matching funds starting at 09:00 New York time (14:00 Brussels time, 16:00 Moscow time) until they run out. You can donate any day and any time but the closer it happens to the start time on March 18, the more likely it is to be matched.
You can make your donation here.
To all those who have donated and who will this year thank you!
Gratefully yours,
The Andrey Rylkov Foundation Team
P.S. Here’s what people are saying about the Andrey Rylkov Foundation:
“Maxim, thank you for your organization, for all the work you do – thank you for having met me 2 years ago at the pharmacy and giving me accurate information. Let’s use every way we can to help those in need. I write this with great gratitude to all of your staff, volunteers and donors.” – ARF participant
Ross Bell, Executive Director, New Zealand Drugs Foundation
Allan Clear, Executive Director, Harm Reduction Coalition, USA
Lisa Maria Sanches Ortega, Latin American Programme Manager at Transform Drug Policy Foundation
Steve Rolles, Senior Policy Analyst, Transform Drug Policy Foundation
Azzi Momen, Open Society Foundations, Access to Medicines Initiative
Clare Hacksel, Manager of Operations and HR at PHS Community Services Society