ANPUD Board Meet, Bangkok

The Asian Network of People who Use Drugs (ANPUD) is the first registered regional network of people who use drugs, and was established by people who use drugs to unify the voices of their communities to advocate for changes in drug laws and policies that negatively affect their lives and for better access to prevention, treatment and care services across Asia. ANPUD currently has over 190 members throughout the Asian region. ANPUD's first meeting of the Executive Board was held in Bangkok on 25th-27th August 2010.

The ANPUD Executive Board consists of seven members from South and South East Asia. During the meeting, the Executive Board members elected Jimmy Dorabjee as the Chairperson and Bijay Pandey the Vice-Chair. Anand Chabungbam was elected as the General Secretary and Mohamad Firdaus Bin Zakaria as the Treasurer. The other board members are Rajesh Khongbantabam, Yvonne Sibuea and Paisan Suwannawong.

The Board agreed upon the following objectives for ANPUD over next two years:

• Establish or strengthen National Networks of people who use drugs in five Asian countries and support in-country peer networks in their advocacy efforts.
• Promote a platform and common voice for people who use drugs in Asia to advocate for the harmonisation of policies, decriminalisation and reducing stigma and discrimination at forums where people who use drugs should be represented.

Read the full article on citizen-news.org.

Go to the ANPUD homepage for additional information.