HIV is No Longer Sexy

“HIV is no longer sexy,” Fredalene Booysen told our class on our May 25th site visit to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) branch in the township of Khayelitsha. Booysen, TAC’s district manager, was describing how the days of plentiful funding for HIV programming have ended as international funding for HIV has declined.  TAC still continues to distribute antiretrovirals, give out condoms and educate community members on HIV prevention in the township of Khayelitsha, an informal settlement where residents live primarily in self-constructed tin structures. However, TAC has been forced to shut down several of its other branches because of funding constraints. Booysen mentioned that the withdrawal of funding from the Global Fund has been particularly difficult for TAC.

About ten years ago, TAC was a major force in challenging the South African government’s harmful HIV policies under former president Thabo Mbeki and ensuring access to antiretroviral drugs for South Africans, especially for HIV-positive pregnant women to prevent mother to child transmission. Booysen and other staff described how TAC is now in a time of transition. While the organization still maintains a watchful eye on the South African government and is ready to protest if necessary, staff recognize that they’ve mostly won their fight against the South African government for access to antiretrovirals (although stock outs and shortages still remain a problem).  TAC has also increasingly been called upon to provide community support in areas outside of its mandate, responding to xenophobic attacks and advocating both for the LGBT community and survivors of gender-based violence in recent years. TAC has the difficult task of trying to continue the support it provides to communities like Khayelitsha and define its mission while also dealing with very serious funding problems. At present, TAC is reluctant to accept funding for its work from the South African government in order to retain its independence and ability to work as a government watchdog group, and is focusing fundraising efforts on small funds from individual donors.