In July a conference was held for leaders of rehabilitation centres and volunteers in prevention of drug addiction and HIV/AIDS in the Urals region, Russia. The conference was organized by the “Salvation” rehab centre (Asbest, Russia) alongside Tearfund and ISAAC and was titled Space for Trust. Anna Lezova, the director of the charity foundation “Independence” shares: “Trust is such a relevant topic today…Russians assess the level of trust in our country as fairly low. What can be said then about trusting those from more marginalized groups – drug addicts, HIV-positive, people with disabilities. It is simply not there!”

The conference gathered about 40 delegates from all over Urals. Over a period of four days the participants integrated theory and practice while, in the words of the teachers, "creating space for trusting" children with HIV, the parents of addicts, etc. The participants also acquired counselling skills to help these people and learnt how to do prevention work in a way that is relevant for today's society. Special attention was paid to the topic of knowing and implementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“It was a wonderful time of not only exchanging experience, the training has actually broadened my horizons!”- said of one the delegates from Krasnoturjinsk.