Paper short abstract:

The paper is dealing with socially marginalized groups in Macedonia. Focus is on most-at-risk adolescents on HIV/AIDS/SPI (man having sex with man, adolescents offering sex and adolescents injecting drugs)aiming to explore their locations, behaviours, social contexts in Macedonia, especially related to the social and cultural determined situations which reflect on their risk behavior on HIV/AIDS/SPI.

Paper long abstract:

The main target group in the research are the most at-risk adolescents (MARA) to HIV/AIDS and STIs in Macedonia at the age of 13 to 18. Having in mind the specifics of the target group which belongs in the so-called hard-to-reach target groups, in our case due to the social and cultural context that the research took place in R. Macedonia.

I. In the mapping and the community based research study, the following sub-categories of MARA to HIV/AIDS/STIs in Macedonia were involved:

a. adolescent males that have sex with men (MSM), with a special emphasis in the research to those adolescents who have unprotected sex with men;

b. adolescent males and females who sell sex (AWSS);

c. adolescents injecting drug users (AID).

The basic aims of the mapping and the community based research study for MARA to HIV/AIDS/STIs in Macedonia are:

1. To discover information of existence of MARA and describe their locations, behaviours, social context and the problems they face.

a. To locate different MARA sub-groups and collect information for their experiences at individual level, at community level and structural level with information from the community itself.

2. To design more case studies that will show how the legal regulation, police activities or current social context hinder the optimal use of the services for MARA.

a. To analyse the information gathered from MARA that reflect all the factors influencing their individual risky behaviour, as well as the risky behaviour at a community level, related to the structural factors.