Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA)

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ARASA is a regional partnership of non-governmental organisations working together to promote a human rights approach to HIV/AIDS and TB in Southern Africa through capacity building and advocacy. It is constituted in the form of a trust and all partner organisations are members of the trust. Steering committees, comprising trust members, act as advisory boards for the two ARASA programme areas: training and awareness raising; and advocacy and lobbying.

Advocacy and Lobbying:

ARASA strengthens and supports partner organisations to promote a human rights based response to TB, HIV and AIDS through technical assistance to them and the communities that they serve. This programme is aimed at enabling partners and communities to monitor and analyse the efforts of national governments to protect, respect and uphold human rights in the context of national responses to AIDS and TB; and engage in effective advocacy initiatives on rights issues that are identified as relevant at both the national and regional levels.

Training and Capacity Building:

ARASA builds the capacity of our partners and the communities that they serve to promote a human rights-based response to TB, HIV and AIDS in their own countries.The programme facilitates human rights training, assists to build skills and develop materials related to HIV, TB and human rights programming.

Regional Treatment Literacy and Advocacy Programme:

ARASA aims to strengthen and support people living with HIV (PLHIV) and their communities by developing knowledgeable leaders who can mobilise society to advocate for the right to health. The programme has brought together groups working on human rights and the law, which form the core of ARASA’s membership, with PLHIV organisations and treatment advocacy movements, to form the nucleus of a regional civil society monitoring forum on universal access to HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support.

Core activities include training on treatment literacy and advocacy and providing technical assistance to PLHIV and their communities to develop treatment literacy and advocacy programmes in their countries.