Penza, 7 July 2015. PenzaNews. The director of AntiAIDS civil society Nadezhda Fedoseeva began the termination process of the organization, announced Sergei Oleinik, president of AntiAIDS foundation, assistant CMO at the Penza dedicated medical assistance clinical center, in the morning of Tuesday, July 7.

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“We worked in this field since 1995, we greatly helped the epidemic security of the Penza region, and Penza city in particular. Unfortunately, the situation is that the programs that we were heading, and that were making the definitive change in the epidemic situation, are not working anymore as we were seeking for sponsors throughout the fifteen years. If you want to judge the situation as good or bad, just evaluate the current epidemic climate. It is catastrophic. Unfortunately, our relentless attempts to push the authorities to finance the programs that ensure the prosperity of the city were a failure,” the speaker said.

Sergei Oleinik added that he had an impression the fact that such important functions were performed by a civil society was a point of ire for the many.

“And we did tell the higher-ups to contribute to the process: ‘Please, take it for yourselves.’ We transferred as much staff as we could to our state institution, the dedicated medical assistance center, to manage AIDS prevention programs. Of course, in this case we see no reason to preserve the civil society right now in the manner it worked before – and it worked excellently. In any case, the work of an organization is related to a plenty of liabilities – to tax services, to the Ministry of Law, and so on. And mere formal existence without any projects, in the conditions where many, especially the authorities, have no will to do this work and understand its importance, is something we do not want to preserve,” he explained.

The president of AntiAIDS civil society stressed he sees no reason to be pessimistic.

“Nothing stops for us at that point. Our excellent professionals will find work as experts, if not in the Penza region. And what does the city or the region gain from it? It’s a question where I have a definite answer. If you want to do it better – go ahead, and if you don’t want to do it at all, you will soon have to pay for your inaction, which is something already occurring,” Sergei Oleinik concluded.