STAR-STAR as a representative of North Macedonia is one of the grant receivers of the Eurasian Key Population’s program titled HIV and Gender. As of July 2021, STAR-STAR will be conducting the project Coordinated, Synchronized and Comprehensive Healthcare Services for Transgender People Undergoing Transition in the Republic of North Macedonia.
Considering the fact that there are no systemic solutions, practices and standards pertaining to transgender people who have decided to undergo transition in North Macedonia (medical gender confirmation), the main focus of this project will be assessing the existing healthcare services and services in general aimed at transgender people who wish to medically confirm their gender. In addition, this project is to target the transgender community itself in order to inform and educate them in terms of the availability of services within the public healthcare system, as well as those available in the in the civil sector, so that they can exercise they health rights. One of the most important aspects of the implementation of this project will most certainly be the mobilization and sensitization of healthcare workers who are to develop and acquire additional capacities and comprehensive knowledge regarding transgender people’s needs, by which they would be better able to provide adequate healthcare services.
The project will be conducted by STAR-STAR in close cooperation with TransFormA – Initiative for Protection and Development of Transgender People’s Rights in the Republic of North Macedonia, and is an integral part of the regional program titled Sustainability of Services for Key Populations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, conducted by the Public Health Alliance in consortium with 100 PER CENT LIFE (Ukrainian network for people living with HIV), the HIV Association of Central Asia and the Eurasian Key Populations Coalition (EKPC), supported by the Global Fund to Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.