Friends of the Treatment Action Campaign

This myspace page is maintained by volunteers with Friends of the Treatment Action Campaign-North America. TAC is not responsible for this content.
About the Treatment Action Campaign :
(visit the TAC website)
South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is an organization of more than 16,000 members, 237 branches, and 65 staff members. The TAC works in six provinces across South Africa from rural Lusikisiki to University of Cape Town. More than 80% of its members are unemployed, more than 70% are women and the majority of members are people who live with HIV/AIDS.
The TAC has become the leading civil society force behind HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention and care in South Africa. Since its inception in 1998, TAC has held government accountable, campaigned against official AIDS denialism, challenged the world's leading pharmaceutical companies to make treatment more affordable and cultivated community leadership on HIV and AIDS. Despite it being inadequate, the current government treatment policy and program and the Mother To Child Transmission Prevention program largely came about as a direct result of TAC's advocacy.
The TAC's objectives are described in the organization's Constitution and are as follows: Campaign for equitable access to affordable treatment for all people with HIV/AIDS. Campaign for and support the prevention and elimination of all new HIV infections. Promote and sponsor legislation to ensure equal access to social services for and equal treatment of all people with HIV/AIDS. Challenge by means of litigation, lobbying, advocacy and all forms of legitimate social mobilisation, any barrier or obstacle, including unfair discrimination, that limits access to treatment for HIV/AIDS in the private and public sector. Educate, promote and develop an understanding and commitment within all communities of developments in HIV/AIDS treatment. Campaign for access to affordable and quality health care for all people in South Africa. Train and develop a representative and effective leadership of people living with HIV/AIDS on the basis of equality and non-discrimination irrespective of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, sex, socio-economic status, nationality, marital status or any other ground. Campaign for an effective regional and global network comprising of organisations with similar aims and objectives.
Transparency and accountability are core principles and features of the TAC as can be witnessed on the TAC Website that houses a range of organizational reports, policies and financial audit reports for public scrutiny.
The TAC does not accept money from the pharmaceutical sector or the South African government.www.tac.org.za
Selected quotes about TAC:
Treatment Action Campaign “in less than five years of existence moved a nation, shifted government policy and advanced the rights of people with HIV everywhere in the world… TAC’s struggle grows out of the best traditions of the anti-apartheid movement. TAC will be a shining light for citizen action for decades to come.” - Graca Machel, on presenting TAC with the Nelson Mandela, Health and Human Rights Award in 2002 “There is simply no other group on the planet that so indomitably fought the fight against the virus, with such principled commitment, such ingenuity, such tenacity, and such success. TAC is revered by People Living With AIDS throughout the world.” - Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa, 7 November, 2005 "The TAC is widely regarded as one of the most effective civil society organizations SA has. Without it, there might not be a government- sponsored antiretroviral roll-out, even an inadequate one – it was the TAC’s successful Constitutional Court challenge that forced government into taking action." - Business Day, 28 September, 2005 "With its tactical mix of using the legal system and building up a formidable generation of (largely young black) activists, the TAC is carrying the torch, doing what a caring state should be. Long may it survive and may it corral many more mouthpieces into its stable." - Mail and Guardian, 30 September, 2005 "The courts have forced the government into action... Some regional governments, especially in the provinces containing Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, have leapt at the chance to provide antiretrovirals, and that is mainly where people are being saved. The most important factor, however, is the Treatment Action Campaign, probably the world's most effective AIDS group. It was founded by Zackie Achmat, who chose not to take the antiretrovirals he needed until the government had agreed to make them available to all." - New York Times, 30 August, 2006