SAHIVAC

Author: CSA

Publishing date: 24.07.2003 14:35

The CSA was a member of SAHIVAC (South African HIV Vaccine Action Campaign), a Consortium established to develop a community mobilisation, education, information and human rights promotion campaign to inform and educate the South African population about HIV/AIDS vaccines and clinical trials. The original partners in the Consortium with the CSA were the Medical Research Council (MRC), the AIDS Legal Network (ALN), the Community Mobilisation Unit (CMU), the Information Clearinghouse (IC) and the National AIDS Convention of South Africa (NACOSA). NACOSA left the consortium at the end of 2001. Their community mobilisation and political lobbying responsibilities were shared between the ALN and the CSA.

SAHIVAC worked closely with the HIV/AIDS Vaccines Ethics Group (HAVEG) at the University of Natal, the Chris Hani Baragwanath Perinatal HIV/AIDS Research Unit and the MRC HIV/AIDS Prevention and Vaccine Trials Unit. It was funded by the European Commission (EC) and the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI).

In its education materials and programmes SAHIVAC aimed to address HIV/AIDS knowledge; a basic introduction to HIV science; the nature of clinical trials in South Africa; gaps in South African law and how to address them; ethics, human rights, and legal rights; community participation and involvement; and stigma.

The CSA’s was tasked with education, community mobilisation and advocacy and lobbying.