DUSHANBE, August 4, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- A five-day workshop for Tajik medical workers on countering stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV was launched in Dushanbe yesterday.

The training workshop, formally titled “Psychological, Personological and Cultural Aspects of the AIDS/HIV Problems: Countering Stigma and Discrimination Against Vulnerable Groups of the Population Regarding HIV,” is conducted in cooperation with the Republican AIDS Center in the framework of the Joint UN Joint Advocacy Project on HIV/AIDS in Tajikistan, according to the UN Joint Project media officer Nasrullo Ramazaonov.

International trainer has been invited to conduct the workshop and its participants include 20 medical workers from all regions of the country.

The main objective of the workshop is in improving knowledge of psychological, personological and cultural aspects of the HIV/AIDS problem, revealing and studying internal stigma, as well as improving skills of interviewing persons from high-risk groups, etc.

Similar seminar was conducted for representatives from NGOs working with HIV sufferers in April this year.