Established in 1991 in Belgrade, JAZAS was the first NGO active in AIDS prevention in former Yugoslavia. Since 2002 it included sex workers among its target groups.

Established in 1991 in Belgrade, JAZAS was the first NGO active in AIDS prevention in former Yugoslavia. Since 2002 it included sex workers among its target groups.

JAZAS focuses its activities on prevention, advocacy and services provision. It runs Mobile Support Unit offering counselling, testing, and treatment to sex workers, opened a drop-in center for sex workers in Belgradedevelops policies for working with people with HIV/AIDS, and organizes national campaigns to change risky behaviour and fight stigma and discrimination of people with HIV/AIDS.

JAZAS’ main projects concerning sex workers are POP (Power of Prevention) project and Lesser Risk in Commercial Sex.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nederland, DFID, and Global Fund financially support them. Partners on the projects targeting sex workers are SOA AIDS, Nederland; Imperial College, London, Great Britain; HESED, Sophia, Bulgaria; and the Economics Institute, Belgrade, Serbia.

JAZAS is active in policy development for working with people with HIV/AIDS, and organizes national campaigns to change risky behavior and fight stigma and discrimination of people with HIV/AIDS.

Closely working with media, government and NGOs as well as with international agencies, JAZAS has become member and partner of different initiatives on national and on the regional/international level:

• Member of UNAIDS team group for Serbia
• Member of European Commission Civil Society Forum on HIV/AIDS
• Member of AIDS Action Europe
• Member of National AIDS Comities
• Member of HPVPI (HIV Prevention Among Vulnerable Groups of Population Initiative) network in Serbia
• Member of SWAN (Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network)

JAZAS is initiator of international scientific meetings organized in cooperation with SASA (Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts) followed with publications of books, such as:

• Medical and Social Aspects of HIV Infection and AIDS – April 2004
• Women and HIV – December 2004
• Interventions and Programs for Especially Vulnerable Populations on HIV – December 2005
• Both the conference organizing and book publishing are part of JAZAS advocacy program

During the last 15 years the organization initiated and carried on numerous activities such as: several national prevention campaigns with printed educational materials; educational seminars for medical doctors, outreach workers, health visitors, school teachers, journalists, and police; development and publishing of prevention guidelines for medical community, school teachers, Red Cross activists, and local communities’ outreach work; research projects for need assessment in local communities, schools and among sex workers; first project targeting sex workers; youth programs organized by Mobile Youth Team of JAZAS, founded in 2002, to work disseminate information about HIV/AIDS, STI issues to the youth.

Contact person: Stasa Plecas
Email: ecjazas@gmail.com
Website: www.jazas.net