In July, after Richard Holbrook visit in Ukraine, ANTIAIDS Foundation was officially acknowledged as the partner of Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS as well as Ukraine was recognized by the GBC as one of the priority countries for private sector activity reinforcement in fighting HIV/AIDS epidemic.

In the middle of October after Elena Franchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation invitation Global Business Coalition delegation visited Ukraine. The GBC visit had three main purposes.

The first is to draw attention of the companies working in Ukraine to HIV/AIDS problem and to make them treat it as a real threat to their businesses.

The second is to show that private business has unleashed potential to fight HIV/AIDS epidemic and to present projects already implemented in Ukraine.

The third one is to gain access to the GBC expertise in fighting HIV/AIDS.

On October 14^th, in order to achieve the objectives set the Foundation and GBC have arranged the meeting with private sector attended by 20 representatives of the biggest Ukrainian companies and GBC member companies having operations in Ukraine.

The participants of the meeting discussed the opportunities to involve businesses both in fighting HIV/AIDS epidemic as well as implementing of preventive and informational campaigns on the work places.

The social image of the companies investing their own funds in programs to combat HIV/AIDS was taken into account. Elena Franchuk in her speech highlighted that only a serious participation and involvement of private business sector in fighting HIV/AIDS was capable to change the situation.