What's new?

22 January 2004 - TAC TP's first public report released

The TAC Treatment Project today released the first public report on its work conducted during 2003. It contains information on expenditure, although audited financial statements will only be produced after the first financial year-end on 31 March 2004. It is available in HTML and PDF formats.

12 December 2003 - Nonkosi Khumalo appointed Coordinator

The secretariat of the TAC Treatment Project unanimously recommended the appointment of Nonkosi Khumalo as the new Treatment Project Coordinator to replace Eduard Grebe, who is leaving the project to return to university. Nonkosi was the Treatment Action Campaign's Women's Health Coordinator, and has been with the organisation since 2001. Her email address is .

27 October 2003 - Gideon Mendel's new photographic work online

A new digital exhibition, including 360-degree panoramas, by Gideon Mendel, documenting the lives of South Africans living with HIV/Aids, some with access to treatment and some not, has been published by the Guardian.

19 September 2003 - Online Credit Card Donations now accepted

The TAC Treatment Project can now accept credit card donations from anywhere in the world. Click here to donate online. Your transaction will be processed by the secure iVeri system and all credit card details are encrypted to protect them from unauthorised use.

18 September 2003 - TAC Treatment Project can help you obtain affordable ARVs

The TAC Treatment Project can supply affordable generic antiretrovirals to individuals who have the necessary authorisation from the Medicines Control Council. You can find more information here.

8 September 2003 - TAC Treatment Project Launched to Provide Antiretrovirals to Community Members and Treatment Activists

On the 8th of August 2003 the South African government instructed the Ministry of Health to develop, within one month, an operational plan for the provision of antiretroviral treatment in the public sector.

However, most communities will have to wait years before the phased rollout reaches them. We have a duty to treat as many of these people as possible. In order to ensure that the public sector programme is a success, and that the HIV/AIDS pandemic does not destroy more of our
families and communities, other sectors of society like organised business, organised labour, civil society and private healthcare providers have to relieve some of the burden from the public healthcare system.

The TAC Treatment Project (TP) is a Section 21 (Non-Profit) company established by the Treatment Action Campaign to make affordable Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) available to people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. This will be done on a fully, partially or
unsubsidised basis, depending on patient circumstances. While the TAC TP has a close relationship with the TAC, it is organisationally and financially independent. Any funds raised by the TAC TP will be used solely for treatment and related support services.

As with the TAC, the TAC TP will maintain the highest standards of financial control. Our books will be open to the public for scrutiny upon request and annual reports including audited financial statements will be published. Progress reports will also be made available to the public every three months. The TAC TP auditors are Douglas and Velcich. The TAC TP is run entirely on a non-profit basis and none of the directors, except the pharmacist, will receive income from the project, now or ever.

Fully subsidised treatment (including medicines, laboratory monitoring and doctors' consultations) will be made available to an equal number of treatment activists and community members not members of the TAC. In other words, for every TAC (or other treatment access) activist treated there will be a corresponding community member treated. TAC activists
will be treated directly through TAC TP. While the TAC TP will fund and provide medicines and support for other community members, their actual treatment will be administered through already existing (and preferably public) local health facilities. The TAC TP will only use sites, public and private, that meet rigorous standards with regard to ethical and transparent clinical selection criteria and quality of care.

Only safe and effective medicines, prequalified by the World Health Organisation and authorised by the Medicines Control Council are used.

The TAC TP has employed a registered pharmacist to ensure the proper storage and handling of medicines and the processing of scripts. Medicines are stored and dispensed from the premises of a registered pharmacy. We encourage individuals who can afford to pay for medicines to contact us on the understanding that it will, on average, take at least three to four weeks to arrange permission for and importation of generic medicines.

The TAC Treatment Project currently has enough funds to treat fifty people - 25 activists and 25 community members. Of these, eleven activists are currently receiving generic antiretrovirals as well as counselling and treatment support. Some of these patients have started taking their antiretrovirals, while others are going though our treatment readiness programme. The rest of the 25 activists will be selected and the 25 community slots allocated before the end of the year. We hope to place a thousand people on treatment by the end of 2004, but for this we will need the financial support of people in South Africa. We need your help to save lives. We appeal to everyone who can to contribute to the TAC Treatment Project, because every person has the right to life. Information on how to contribute can be found on the TAC Treatment Project website at http://tac.org.za/treatment.