Implementing Multiple Gender Strategies to Improve HIV and ... - ICRW

interviews, and community discussions during sensitization and education
activities. TASO staff then conduct sensitization sessions on relevant
issues of gender and gender-based violence, targeting particular categories
of people (such as community leaders and youth) as well as TASO peer
support groups. TASO staff themselves also receive sensitization training
on violence. The program also provides survivors of gender-based violence
with counseling, treatment of STIs, care for those who become pregnant,
and start-up capital for income-generating activities.
The program addresses male norms in educational workshops for men on
the drivers of the HIV epidemic, such as multiple partners, unprotected sex,
and cross-generational sex. Men are encouraged to undergo HIV testing,
and TASO provides home-based counseling and testing for clients’
partners and family members (65 percent of TASO clients are female).
Male clients started a Positive Men’s Union (POMU), which works to involve
more men in HIV testing and seeking HIV-related services.
TASO increases women’s legal protection by helping clients understand
their rights and inviting legal partners to give talks. Women clients are
encouraged to seek legal help from civil leaders at various levels (village,
parish, subcounty, and district). TASO also has linked clients to the
Association of Uganda Women Lawyers (FIDA) to facilitate legal and police
help in cases of property grabbing or rape.
Poverty is a key driver of the HIV epidemic in Uganda, and most TASO
clients are very poor women. To increase women’s access to income and
productive resources, TASO works in partnership with community-based,
national, and international organizations including the World Food Program
(WFP), ACDI/VOCA, Heifer International, World Vision, the Foundation for
Credit and Community Assistance (FOCCAS) Uganda, microfinance
institutions, women’s organizations, and more. Through these partnerships,
women have received entrepreneurship training, start-up capital,
agricultural training, seeds, cows, goats, and poultry. TASO also supports
formal education activities.
At the national level, TASO works to develop policies and guidelines in
counseling and provides support supervision, monitoring and evaluation,
and resource mobilization. At the district level, TASO service centers
provide monitoring and support as well as supervision to community
volunteers.
Target Audience • TASO clients and family members
• Client communities
Level of Intervention • National
• District
• Community
• Family
• Individual
Geographic
Location
Nationwide: TASO works directly through the TASO service centers and
indirectly through Mini-TASOs in 74 out of the 81 districts
171