Almaty Photo Exhibition Aims to Raise HIV Awareness

In the run-up to World Aids Day on December 1, Almaty's Central Museum is hosting a photo exhibition to draw attention to the spread of HIV and TB in Central Asia. The images on display give an insight into the daily lives of people affected by the HIV epidemic, which is quickly spreading throughout Kazakhstan and Central Asia. According to official statistics there are around 50,000 infected people in the region, though the real figure may be much higher. 

The exhibition, entitled “We are Near! We are Together!,” brings the work of Ukrainian freelance photographer Alexander Glyadyelov to Kazakhstan for the first time. Glyadyelov has been working on documentary photography projects involving socially deprived children and the HIV/AIDS epidemic since the mid-1990s. 

His striking black and white photos are being exhibited alongside images taken by young photographers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan who are working in the NGO sector, living with HIV, or are from groups at high risk of contracting the virus.

Juxtaposed with everyday scenes of people living with HIV are some harrowing pictures from prison camps in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. HIV and TB are chronic in Kazakhstan's prisons.

It's not only the prison population that is suffering from these infections, however. According to the UNAIDS/WHO 2009 report “AIDS Epidemic Update,” Central Asia and Eastern Europe are the only areas of the world where HIV infection rates among all sectors of the population remain on the rise. The problem is most acute among people injecting drugs and those having unprotected sex.  

Another problem involves contaminated injections in health-care facilities – a notorious case in Shymkent in southern Kazakhstan resulted in more than 130 children being infected with HIV after receiving tainted blood transfusions in 2006. 

Entrance to the exhibition is free and it runs from November 24 to December 2 at Almaty's Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan. As well as viewing the photos, visitors can get a free consultation and pick up some advice about HIV prevention or even have a chat with some of the people who feature in the photos.