ISAAC has been continuing to connect, encourage and equip drug rehabilitation centres in Central Asia. We have built relationships with a number of centres over the past few years, and through these relationships we were able to take an active part in a recent conference for the region to mobilise Christian work in the area of HIV and AIDS. This was the first such conference for the region, and was attended by over 70 key people from four countries.

ISAAC was able to use the evening sessions in partnership with ACET (AIDS Care, Education and Training) to provide training and networking sessions for the leaders from drug rehabilitation centres, as well as those involved in prison ministries and HIV prevention work. The issues of drug and alcohol use, crime and the spread of HIV are all closely linked in Central Asia.

Over 50 people attended the evening sessions. Specially invited speakers from Russia and Malaysia were able to share their experiences, with the delegates requesting specific training on issues such as relapse prevention.

Having such able trainers meant that we could deliver the training the following evening. We also took the opportunity to pray for each other, as the projects often finding themselves in difficult situations. Having a speaker from Malaysia really helped the local centres to see that this is a worldwide issue, and Christian centres are active in tackling the problem in many places but with the same heart of compassion. One of the trainers was also able to travel to visit other centres following the conference and share more of his skills and experience.

In addition to this training we were able to distribute copies of the ISAAC/ACET Resource Manual (click here to read more) to all of the conference delegates. The content was very well received and plans are now underway to produce this manual in the Kazakh and Kyrgyz languages.

We are planning to follow this event up with a further training conference next year, with the topics chosen by centres from the region.