Introduction to TAC:
Founded on 10 December 1998 in Cape Town, South Africa, The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) advocates for increased access to treatment, care and support services for people living with HIV and campaigns to reduce new HIV infections. With more than 16,000 members, 267 branches and 72 full time staff members, TAC has become the leading civil society force behind comprehensive health care services for people living with HIV&AIDS in South Africa. Since 1998, TAC has held government accountable for health care service delivery; campaigned against official AIDS denialism; challenged the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies to make treatment more affordable and cultivated community leadership on HIV and AIDS. Our efforts have resulted in many life-saving interventions, including the implementation of country-wide mother-to-child transmission prevention and antiretroviral treatment programmes. For our efforts TAC has received world-wide acclaim and numerous international accolades, including a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. On 30 August 2006 the New York Times named TAC, “the world’s most effective AIDS group”.
Innovative sustainable fundraising through money exchange
‘TAC welcomes a new initiative by Ethical Currency that will use foreign exchange transactions to raise money for good causes around the globe.
This plan, the first of its kind in the exchange broker kingdom, will voluntarily ring fence 0.005% of all transactions into a single pot that will be donated specifically to the Treatment Action Campaign. It is based on the idea of the Tobin Tax, or currency transaction levy (CTL) as it has come to be called, and is one of the mechanisms being considered by governments, international institutions, and others to raise large amounts of independent, global, and stable monies.
This is a concrete step toward creating more sustainable sources of funding for the TAC and the wider NGO community which is threatened by a fragile financial and funding climate. This new environment jeopardizes the sustainability of current HIV/AIDS treatment programmes that are saving millions of lives all over Africa. Moreover, the millennium development goals aim to reach universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment for all those who need it by 2010, and expanding financial and human resources is necessary to achieving this goal. New initiatives such as this get government and international business involved working toward the delivery of the millennium goals, and in particular the community work undertaken by TAC to achieve these goals.’
TAC – April 2010
To learn more about the Treatment Action Campaign click on this link: