Building communities, saving lives
Our mission: To reduce the spread of HIV and meet the challenges of AIDS
Goal 1: Increase coverage
“Without treatment I would certainly have died and my children would be unhappy orphans. But today it seems as if I have gone back to my youth.”
Raphaële Aballo, a beneficiary of the Alliance-supported Projet Orange treatment programme in Burkina Faso
Goal 2: Strengthen national responses
“This process has given the HIV/AIDS civil society network in Senegal a sense of ownership and made its members more confident.”
Baba Goumbala, founding executive director of Alliance Nationale Contre le SIDA, on Alliance-supported capacity building and advocacy work in Senegal
Goal 3:Inform policies
“We are proud to be one of the founders of the Alliance and very much value their work and international standing.”
Gareth Thomas, MP, British Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development
Goal 4: Build an effective alliance
“Working as an Alliance is about ownership, sharing, valuing local expertise and knowledge, with total respect for each organisation’s uniqueness, culture and priorities.”
Najat Serhani, AMSED Executive Director, Morocco
What we do – supporting community action
Established in 1993, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance (the Alliance) is a global partnership of nationally-based organisations working to support community action on AIDS.
These national partners help local community groups and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to take action on AIDS, and are supported by technical expertise, policy work and fundraising carried out at the UK-based international secretariat and across the Alliance.
In addition to community- and country-based programmes, the Alliance also has extensive regional programmes and works on a range of international activities such as support for South–South cooperation, operations research, training and good practice development, as well as policy analysis and advocacy.
HIV – a global epidemic
HIV/AIDS is having a devastating impact on the world, with developing countries and poor communities the hardest hit. Every day 8,000 people die of AIDS. Forty million people around the world are living with the virus, and over 15 million children have been orphaned.
But there is cause for hope. Prevention efforts in countries such as Kenya, Burkina Faso, Uganda and Cambodia have reduced the rates of new infections. And low- and middle-income countries such as Botswana, Zambia, Cuba and Brazil are leading the way in making universal access to life-saving treatment a reality.
Community action is key to their success. This means responses by and for local people, carried out through community-based groups and national NGOs. Most successful national responses have been built on these local actions.
Communities know best what works for them in their particular context. They know how to identify and support those most in need and those who can be hardest to reach, building new ways of working and coping.
Case study:
A complicated comfort, Nigeria
Comfort, aged 27, recently completed a secretarial degree at Ibadan Polytechnic, south-west Nigeria. Last year, she found out she was HIV positive. Comfort thought her life was over. She decided not to tell her friends. “When they find out, people don’t want to know you any more,” she explains.
At Ibadan’s University College Hospital, staff explained to Comfort that it is possible to live with HIV on anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment. She is now one of just 100,000 people eligible for government-subsidised drugs in Nigeria.
Comfort is now settled into the complicated routine of taking four separate drugs at different times each day. The main problem she finds is making sure she has a nutritious diet. NELA, the Alliance organisation in Nigeria, gives Comfort ongoing support and advice, as well as drugs to prevent tuberculosis. “NELA have been so good,” she says. “The staff treat me as a family member and a friend.”
Before her diagnosis, Comfort did not know about anti-retroviral treatment. She feels that if more people knew, they would be more prepared to take an HIV test. “Not everyone has the courage to take the test,” she says. “But if you don’t know about ARV treatment, what’s the point in knowing if you have HIV?”
“HIV has caused loss to so many people’s lives,” she says. “But I have to see it as a friend – it will always be with me. We eat together, bath together, sleep together. You can’t see it as an enemy as you can’t send it away, so take it as your friend.”
Where does the Alliance work?
The Alliance currently works in over 25 countries – those threatened by emerging HIV epidemics as well as those already heavily affected. To date, we have provided support to non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations from more than 40 countries. We emphasise the importance of working with people who are most likely to affect or be affected by the spread of HIV. These are often people from marginalised groups who are the most vulnerable and the hardest to reach.
For more information, see where we work
How we make a difference
To make a real difference, the Alliance focuses on integrated responses to the HIV epidemic that combine HIV prevention with improved access to treatment, care and support, and lessening the impact of AIDS.
The Alliance knows that a broad range of action by an even broader range of people and institutions is needed to have a significant impact on the epidemic. We also emphasise work with those who are hardest, but vital, to reach: people from marginalised groups who are most vulnerable to and affected by HIV, and groups who are key to the way the epidemic can spread.
In 2005 alone, the Alliance reached over 31 million people through its programmes and information and education activities. Many of these people were from the poorest and most vulnerable communities.
Since 1994, over US$140 million has been channelled to more than 40 developing countries, to support over 2,000 communities in over 3,000 projects.
How you can help
There are various ways that you can support the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
You can make a donation through our website www.aidsalliance.org. Just click on the ‘How to give’ button.
Alternatively, set up a standing order to make a regular donation using these details:
Barclays Bank PLC, 99 Hatton Garden, London, EC1 8DN.
Sort code: 20-82-94.
Account number: 20432385.
You can also leave a gift in your will. Gifts to charities in wills are free of inheritance tax. Simply quote the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, charity registration number 1038860.
Thank you for any support you can give.
For more information, please visit www.aidsalliance.org or contact the UK secretariat:
International HIV/AIDS Alliance, 1st and 2nd Floor, Preece House, 91-101 Davigdor Road, Hove, BN3 1RE, United Kingdom. T +44 (0)1273 718900. mail@aidsalliance.org
Registered charity number 1038860.
