A Round Table on Cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the State in Combating the Spread of HIV/AIDS, organized by the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations (DECR), took place on March 29, 2011, at the Lipetsk Regional Administration. The meeting dealt with pressing problems of the prevention of drug addiction and spread of HIV/AIDS as well as problems involved in the spiritual and moral education of youth. A special place in the agenda was given to the experience of implementing the Ladya program in Lipetsk, aiming at preventing risk behaviours and HIV/AIDS among teenagers.

The Round Table was attended by representatives of the Lipetsk Internal Policy Directorate, Lipetsk Public Chamber, Lipetsk Regional Directorate for Education and Science, Lipetsk Regional Drug Control Service, Lipetsk Regional Center for Preventing and Combating AIDS and Infectious Diseases, Lipetsk Regional Drug Abuse Clinic, UN Population Fund, DECR, ROC diocesan clergy in Lipetsk, Orthodox Doctors Society as well as leaders and specialists of educational institutions.

The meeting was chaired by I. Dedyaev, chief of the Lipetsk Regional Internal Policy Directorate. He welcomed the gathering on behalf of the organizers and pointed to the relevance of the issues to be dealt with by the Round Table in the light of the governmental youth policy.

Archbishop Nikon of Lipetsk and Yelets drew the attention of the gathering to the position taken by the Russian Orthodox Church in opposing the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and called the participants to help foster spiritual and moral norms in society.

Ms. V. Kisenko, chairman of the Lipetsk Regional Public Chamber, shared her experience of cooperation with various organizations in the region and pointed to the need for preventive work among young people.

Ms. L. Kirillova, chief doctor of the Lipetsk Regional AIDS Center, spoke of the threatening rate of HIV/AIDS spreading in Russia and the Lipetsk region and the efforts to check it through education and spiritual and moral formation.

According to M. Korostin, chairman of the Orthodox Doctors Society and chief narcologist of the Lipetsk region, the spiritual and moral aspect is a decisive one in the morbidity of drug addiction and HIV infection.

Mr. A. Korshunov of the Federal Drug Control Service informed the meeting about measures taken to overcome the spread of drugs in the region.

Rev. Andrey Surikov, Lipetsk diocesan commissioner for work with HIV-infected and drug-dependent people, stated that the spiritual and moral education of youth based on Orthodox values could become the ‘vaccine’ which might help curb the spread of HIV infection.

Ms. M. Neliubova of the DECR informed the participants about Ladya, a program for the primary prevention of HIV/AIDS and risk behaviours among adolescents. The Ladya program has been implemented in Lipetsk and its region since 2010 in close cooperation between church and secular organizations involved in youth work. At present, the Ladya training is offered by 12 educational institutions in Lipetsk and its region. Specialists who give instruction according to the Ladya program pointed in their remarks to its positive impact on adolescents and to qualitative changes in their behaviour.

Participants heard with great interest the remarks made by Katya Turbaeva and Anton Artyushkin of the comprehensive school at the village of Khruschevka near Lipetsk as they shared their impressions of participation in the Ladya program. These training, they said, helped them to look into their own selves, to understand their mates and relatives and to resolve conflicts. The program gave them an opportunity to discuss things which they could talk about with nobody and nowhere.

On the basis of the discussion, the Round Table participants adopted a resolution setting as one of the key tasks to help promote the Ladya program in the Lipetsk region and to undertake the control and assessment of its application. To create conditions necessary for an effective use of the Ladya program in the Lipetsk region, it was agreed to set up a coordinating group from among representatives of governmental, pubic and church organizations which participated in the Round Table. Its terms of reference will include the spiritual and ethical education of the younger generation, prevention of deviant behaviours and concern for the spiritual and moral health of the youth. The general coordination of the work of this group was entrusted to the representative of the AIDS Center.