Over the years, TASO has learnt lessons regarding the fight against HIV/AIDS. Some of the lessons are;
Political good will and support is critical to success in HIV/AIDS services. It is therefore
important to cultivate and improve this asset particularly at district levels.
The quality of PLWHA can be greatly improved even without the ARVs: Integrated and timely
management of opportunistic infections coupled with good counselling, nutritional support and a
supportive environment care can do wonders. This will continue to be TASO's key approach until
the ARVs become more widely available.
PLWHAs should be taken as senior partners in the fight against AIDS. They are very
knowledgeable about their condition and can best determine what is good for them.
Because of this TASO has strongly approved the GIPA philosophy, and as a matter of fact,
TASO was implementing GIPA long before the concept and acronym was coined.
The biggest worries of PLWHA relate to their children. If they get assurance of support to
their children a heavy load is lifted off their minds. It is therefore important to provide OVC
services as they help both the child and the client.
Communities are willing to be active participants in the fight against HIV/AIDS. They mainly
need to be equipped with the basic skills and a little motivation and they the can do a lot for
themselves. It is important to involve the communities in the design and implementation of
community based projects; this enhances participation and community ownership of the programme
and helps them to become AIDS competent.
Given the current state of the epidemic, no one organisation or project/programme can hope to
solve all the problems on its own. This makes two issues critical; a) building the capacity of
other organisations to do similar work, in this way, more people can be reached. b) Networking
and collaborating with other agencies is very important, this makes it possible to share the
various capacities that exist in the various organisations. These have been TASO's strategies for
a long time.
A behaviour change evolves over time. There is need for sustained efforts in order to bring
about lasting behaviour change.
HIV/AIDS and Poverty are closely intertwined; it is therefore important to develop strategies
that tackle both in order to achieve real success.
HIV/AIDS work is very stressing; especially so for frontline staff. It is therefore important
for organisations to arrange for care of carers programmes in order to avoid burnout and maintain
staff morale.
