On arriving in Johannesburg following an overnight flight from London, our ten-day visit to sub-Saharan Africa began with changing currency, a security briefing, country orientation, and a couple hours of rest at our hotel, located in Pretoria, home of the U.S. Embassy to South Africa.

To help us to get oriented and set the context for our time in South Africa, we were first taken to an advocacy organization, Treatment Action Campaign, directed by treatment activist Zachie Achmatt. “We are not enemies of the government. Our task is getting our government to do its job.” began Mark Heywood, a youthful attorney with TAC’s AIDS Law Project. TAC was launched in 1988 on December 10, International Human Rights Day. Its main objective is to campaign for greater access to treatment for all South Africans by raising public awareness and understanding of issues surrounding the availability, affordability, and use of HIV treatments.

TAC campaigns against the view that AIDS is a “death sentence.” Our speaker provided us with an overview of the issues impacting people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. His presentation covered the government’s reluctance to provide treatment to the estimated 500,000 South Africans who currently need it; the absence of a coordinated plan to review and assess the nation’s health care infrastructure and service delivery capacity; drug production, pricing, storage, and delivery; health care worker shortages; and the absence of an implementation plan. Mark asked the delegation to inform as many American advocates as possible that South Africa is ready to provide treatment, but there is a real need for both the drugs and a plan for “scaling up.”