Marching for better representation for people living with HIV

On July 29 more than 500 people living with HIV and AIDS marched through central Lusaka. This important advocacy event was designed to increase awareness of the unmet needs of people living with HIV and AIDS.

Their 12 demands were simple and focused on three important areas:

Ÿ Better representation for people living with HIV and AIDS and improved national coordination of the HIV and AIDS repsonse

Access to treatment, care and support for ALL people living with HIV and AIDS

Increased Government commitment and better financial management of the HIV/AIDS response

To find out more about the march, use the links below:

TALC to hold march for better representation
Press release, 21 July, 2006

Demands of the 2006 AIDS March: Listening to and acting upon the voices of people living with HIV and AIDS
Demands, TALC, 2006

Marching for better representation
Images slideshow, TALC, 2006

Better representation for people living with HIV and AIDS
TALCing point paper, 2006

Better financial management of the HIV and AIDS repsonse
TALCing point paper, 2006

Access to treatment for all
TALCing point paper, 2006

What is advocacy?

Advocacy is the process of using education and information to change public opinion and policy.

At TALC, the aim is to advocate for changes to government and other policies so they will have a positive effect on people living with HIV and AIDS.

The important thing for TALC is that the advocacy is done by people living with HIV and AIDS and that it is vibrant and inclusive.

At TALC the focus is on sharing advocacy skills to enable Zambian people to advocate individually and as a group.

Why is treatment advocacy important?

Despite an HIV infection rate of 16% in Zambia, an overwhelming majority of PLHA still do not have access to life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy (ART).

In 2005 the government announced that access to ART was free and promised to have 100,000 people accessing treatment by the end of the year. The promise was not met with only around 40,000 people on treatment.

There are many reasons for the failure, which need to be addressed by the government. In rural areas, for instance, people have to travel great distances to get ART medication since the service is only available in provincial capitals or in the few mobile clinics. Other problems include a lack of medical personnel and medical clinics and not enough funds being directed to the treatment roll out.

TALC strongly believes that to improve access to treatment there needs to be political advocacy by PLHA; and treatment literacy programmes need to be run throughout the country to educate people about the unique health needs of PLHA, particularly when they are on treatment.

Advocacy is a new phenomenon in Zambia. For TALC, advocacy is about carrying targeted actions directed at policy makers and the wider community to raise awareness of treatment issues.

This increased awareness will hopefully lead to policies that improve access to HIV medicines, support and care; and ensure the PLHA taking the medicines are literate and understand their treatment needs.

Interested in advocacy? Visit our treatment advocate page for more information.