AAE welcomes new Steering Committee Member Marios Atzemis, who works as a harm reduction officer at the Greek Association of People Living with HIV "Positive Voice".
Welcome Marios!
Marios has been a substance user for many years. In his social reintegration of the rehab unit “18Ano”, he actively participated in the activist group "Collective Actions of Social Solidarity" with his peers but also with the therapists of the unit. During this time, he began writing and releasing scientific publications, as well as making webradio and webtv broadcasts, by sharing his experience as former user and a person living with HIV. Marios is one of the incidents that were recorded in the collective consciousness as the HIV outbreak in injecting drug users in the centre of Athens between 2011 and2013. An outbreak that changed many things in the way the average Greek views and understands harm reduction techniques.
“I speak openly about my history as a user as well as about my HIV status; because I think that it can break the invisibility and silence surrounding the community of origin.”
Since summer 2014, Marios has been working for the Greek Association of People Living with HIV ''Positive Voice'' as a Harm Reduction Officer, designing and implementing interventions for people who use drugs, also working in the field of drug related policy and advocacy while taking part in numerous committees. Since 2016, Marios is a member the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) representing the organisation in the Civil Society Forum in Brussels and in the Board of Directors of Drug Policy Network of South East Europe (DPNSEE). He is an experienced speaker, who attended numerous sessions, meetings, workshops and conferences, both in Greece and abroad.