Since the beginning of March 2010 an international media contest has been launched as an initiative within the “Addicted to Life” information campaign for prevention and reduction of risks associated with amphetamine use. The contest is being carried out simultaneously in four European countries - France, Hungary, Macedonia, and Bulgaria. All journalists in the 4 participating countries willing to write or produce a material dedicated to the health and social aspects of drug use among young people are welcomed to participate in the contest.

 Members of the International jury

  Oliver Vujović - Chairman of the jury

Mr.Oliver Vujović, is the Secretary General of the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) -  International Press Institute affiliate, and a former journalist. Founder of Balkan Point - Independent SEE Research and News Service and the South Eeast and Central Europe PR organization (SECEPRO). Editor, co-editor, author or co-author in books ("Media and Minorities in SEE", etc.), publications, research articles and magazines. He is editor of the SEEMO Media Handbook (annual publication) and publisher of the De Scripto magazine. Some of publications where he was the editor are: Guide for Investigative Reporters, Investigative Reporting in SEE etc. Vujovic organised the first meeting between leading media representatives from Serbia and Kosovo (over 100 editors-in-chief and media executives) in Ohrid in May 2003.

   John-Peter Kools- Member of the jury

John-Peter Kools is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Harm Reduction Association and Health Connection International. Mr. John-Peter Kools has been working in the field of drug use, harm reduction and HIV prevention since the mid 1980s. As a staff member of the drug users’ interest and advocacy group in Amsterdam, he was involved in community-based HIV responses and starting the first needle exchange service in Europe in 1984. In 1990 he was co-founder of Mainline - a health promotion organisation in the Netherlands, where he worked from 1990 until 2007. Kools was editor-in-chief of the health promotion magazine for people using drugs. Since 1996 he has been mainly involved in initiating and supporting HIV prevention services in Central & Eastern Europe and co-ordinated a multi-country program on HIV, drug use and poverty reduction in Asia. Currently he is co-ordinating a HIV/health programme for drug using communities in South Africa. 

  Denitsa Sacheva- Member of the jury

Ms. Denitsa Sacheva is member for Bulgaria in the International PR Association (IPRA) and Council member for two mandates (2005-2006 and 2007- 2008). Full member of European Association of Communication Directors. PR practice lecturer at the New Bulgarian University in Sofia and lectures Health Communications at London’s School of PR in Sofia.

Denitsa Sacheva is Chair of the International Healthcare and Health Insurance Institute-BG. In the period 1999 – 2001 she has been head of the Office of the Minister of Health of Republic of Bulgaria. Her job experience record includes over 20 international projects funded by the EU Commission, World Bank, USAID, UNICEF and UNDP.

   Daria Ocheret- member of the jury

Daria Ocheret is Senior Advocacy Officer of the Euroasian Harm Reduction Network. She is a clinical psychologist who has come into the sphere of harm reduction in 1998 as a volunteer and then an outreach worker of the Moscow outreach project of MSF-Holland. Until 2003 Ocheret has worked in the harm reduction project of MSF-Holland / AFEW as an informational manager and a trainer. From 2004 till 2007 Dasha was the leader of a drug users’ self-organization “Kolodets” where she was coordinating projects of drug policy and legislation change in the Russian Federation, advocacy of opioid substitution treatment and access to HIV treatment, and a peer-driven case management project. During the period of 2008 – 2010 Dasha combined her work in the international humanitarian organizationMedecins du Monde (France) which was focused on access to primarily health care, TB and alcohol harm reduction among indigenous populations of the North, with various consultancies in harm reduction. Since 2009 she is a part of the Advisory Group of the IHRD/OSI. Dasha’s experience with the Eurasian Harm Reduction Network started in 2003, when she has joined the Secretariat as an informational manager. Since then, she conducted a number of trainings on advocacy and community mobilization, contributed into the creation of EHRN publications, and was involved as a drug policy coordinator in the framework of the EHRN Drug Policy Advocacy project. Since October 2009 Dasha has been elected as the chairperson the EHRN Steering Committee.

Dasha’s 12-years experience in harm reduction includes both field work with drug users and collaboration with governmental institutions, policy work and management of non-governmental organizations. She is especially interested in such fields of harm reduction as the protection of human rights of drug users, advocacy for rational drug policies and decriminalization, improving access for drug treatment and prevention and treatment of HIV, hepatitis and TB, women’s health and gender-specific projects, decreasing overdoses-related deaths, and community mobilization.

  Peter Sarosi- member of the jury

Peter Sarosi is a Steering Committee member of the International Drug Policy Consortium. He is the civil society representative of the Drug Coordination Committee of the Hungarian government, an expert of the Parliamentary Commission on Drugs. Peter is currently the Drug Policy Program Director of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), a law reform watchdog NGO based in Budapest, which work centers on public advocacy for drug policy reform.