The AIDS Foundation of South Africa (AFSA) was established by a group of activists in Cape Town, many of whom had lost partners, family members and loved ones to AIDS. AFSA was set-up to create a legal entity that could raise and distribute funding to finance HIV/AIDS education and care projects.  At this early stage, AFSA had no paid employees, instead, everyone that supported the Foundation worked in a voluntary capacity. It was only in 1992 when AFSA received a bequest was it possible to appoint a full-time Executive Director and a Fundraiser. AFSA’s first Executive Director was Dr. Stuart Harris.

Focusing on Combination Prevention and Treatment, Child Protection, and Wellbeing, Food Security and Income Generation, AFSA aims to deliver quality services to communities most in need. Policy and Practice through the promotion of equality, education, and access to basic services is a cornerstone of these efforts.

AFSA recognizes that the HIV epidemic is rooted in social and relational phenomena conditioned by environmental, cultural, political and socio-economic drivers. Given the complex reality that HIV affects communities and subgroups differently, AFSA uses strategies that address the social and structural drivers of HIV/AIDS and integrates interventions into a broader sexual and reproductive health framework. AFSA focuses on geographies and populations with elevated risk, thereby effectively and efficiently maximizing prevention impact.

AFSA’s work is oriented around UNAID’s 90-90-90 global target, which calls for countries to achieve the following by 2020:

• 90% of all people living with HIV know their status
• 90% of all people diagnosed with HIV receive sustained antiretroviral therapy
• 90% of people receiving antiretroviral therapy have viral suppression

In order to address the current prevention gap in Eastern and Southern Africa, AFSA’s strategic plan takes the 90-90-90 target into account as it works towards closing the gap in testing, treatment, and care.

AFSA’s Strategic Action Plan 2016-2020 includes the following objectives:

• Reduce new HIV, TB & STI infections through the delivery of customized interventions targeting priority populations
• Address priority social and structural determinants of HIV and TB
• Strengthen community systems for improved health and development outcomes in marginalized communities
• Ensure universal access of services to all through the protection of human rights and access to justice within communities and healthcare settings
• Drive AFSA’s organizational effectiveness

To achieve this, AFSA works towards strengthening:

• Demand-side interventions that improve risk perception and awareness and acceptability of prevention approaches (more individuals test and know their status, specifically hard-to-reach and underserved individuals and populations)
• Supply-side interventions that make prevention products and procedures more accessible and available
• Adherence interventions that support ongoing adoption of prevention behaviors, including those that do and do not involve prevention products

In order to support the South African response to the 90-90-90 strategy, AFSA assists in identifying people living with HIV outside of healthcare facilities support their adherence to treatment and linkage into care and focuses on improving data quality and flow amongst implementing partners and key stakeholders. AFSA strategically positions itself to work in partnership with CBOs and NGOs because of their access and close proximity to vulnerable communities and target populations. AFSA believes that community participation and ownership is key to ensuring success and sustainability of local interventions and that communities be agents of their own development. Through this, AFSA is able to successfully extend the reach of quality interventions, to remote, rural and hard-to-reach communities.