Photo Exhibition “Come Back Home Healthy!” Opens in Astana

A photo exhibition “Come Back Home Healthy!” opened in Astana – reflecting the accomplishments of a program that works to expand access of labor migrants to diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The exhibition was opened within the framework of the project “Addressing Cross-border Control and Treatment of TB, MDR-TB and TB/HIV among Labor Migrants”, implemented by Project HOPE through a grant of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The event is being held to draw public attention to population groups at high risk of TB.

The exhibition features 20 works by the national photographer Dinara Ibraimova, taken in different regions of the country. Seen through her lens are construction sites, markets and other places where migrants work, as well as their places of residence. The photographs portray the working life and health problems of labor migrants arriving in Kazakhstan.

The photographs also portray health workers and staff of non-governmental public organizations that provide assistance and social support to labor migrants through education and information about prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of TB within the program implemented by Project HOPE.

“The goal of our program is to remove barriers that limit access to TB diagnosis and treatment, provide opportunities for labor migrants, and create effective mechanisms (including regional ones) for cross-border control and treatment of TB,” says Bakhtiyar Babamuradov, Project Manager Project HOPE Kazakhstan.

For the past three years, Project HOPE’s staff, together with government agencies, health organizations, the migration service, non-governmental organizations, and national cultural centers, have been engaged in a challenging but very important work, part of which is reflected in the pictures of the “Come Back Home Healthy!” photo exhibition.

We work with six non-governmental public organizations. Their representatives visit migrants’ workplaces and residences to carry out information and educational work. If necessary, we refer labor migrants to polyclinics. We support patients while they are on treatment, providing each one with a motivational package,” says Merei Talaybek, a social worker of the “Zhariya International Center“ Public Fund.

Representatives of Project HOPE, the International Organization for Migration, non-governmental organizations, the health care community and labor migrants took part in the opening ceremony of the photo exhibition.