ONE’s Legislative Director Tom Hart sent in this post right after arriving at the signing event:

I’m sitting in the East Room of the White House, with its 3 massive chandaliers and gold trim, as the president signs a nearly $50b reauthorization of PEPFAR. I feel like this room couldn’t be big enough to hold all the support this effort has, especially from ONE members around the country. In DC, we read every day of conflict, partisan bickering and good things stalled. Not today. Republicans, Democrats, Congress, the White House – all found a reason to work together and get this lifesaving initiative done.

As I filed through one of the holding rooms prior to the event, I ran into ONE’s old friend, Agnes from Uganda. What a surprise. The President invited her to this ceremony as one of his “special guests”. Agnes works for this amazing organization in Uganda named TASO, where PEPFAR has supported many many people on ARVs. Agnes is also HIV+, making the signing of this bill all the more meaningful. In fact, the rest of the pomp and glitz don’t really matter…it’s really about Agnes and the millions of others this bill has touched and will over the next 5 years.

-Tom Hart

TASO receives PEPFAR funding and is a perfect example of what communities can do to fight AIDS and start to work their way out of poverty if we simply provide a little assistance. In their own words:

Today TASO is the largest indigenous NGO providing HIV/AIDS services in Uganda and Africa, having supported over 150,000 directly since its inception. The organization has 11 service centers spread in Uganda, with now 13 “mini-TASOs” in other parts of the country that are outside TASO’s catchment area of 75Km from the nearest service center. A mini TASO is a public Health unit that provides TASO-like services. TASO has given 10,000 clients ARVs including 500 children since we rolled out Antiretroviral Therapy in June 2004.

Check out the TASO website to learn more about the great work that they are doing every day, and take a look at some pictures ONE staffers took when visiting TASO last month.

Two are of people waiting in line for ARVS. The other is a doctor explaining how he tests people for HIV.

Today, ONE Staff visited “The AIDS Support Organization” (TASO) in Kampala, Uganda.

TASO was founded in 1987 and today is the largest indigenous NGO providing HIV/AIDS services in Uganda, Africa. The organization has 11 service centers, and 13 more “mini-TASOs,” throughout the country.

A note from Kimberly:

We just visited the good people at TASO Kampala. We were able to visit some of the people they provide treatment to in their homes.

The woman that Marjorie, Josh and I met with was diagnosed in 1999 but didn’t begin receiving ARV treatment until 2002. Because of the ARV treatment, she is healthy enough to work and care for her grandsons (she has 4) and support her son who just entered his first year of university.

She was very pleased we came to hear her story. She wanted us to convey her thanks to all of those people that make it possible for her to be on treatment.

Thank you for being one of those people.

-Kimberly Cadena

Below, updates from our own Josh Peck and Kimberly Cadena.

Saturday, 5:47 PM

We’re off.

We’re sitting in Dulles Airport waiting to board our flight to Uganda. Margaret (on the left) is emailing her family using Katherine’s phone because she dropped hers in the toilet.

We’re really excited, but we’ll see how that holds up as we make our 20 hour journey to Entebbe.

-Josh Peck

10:30 pm Sunday night

The ONE team has just landed in Entebbi, Uganda. After making it through customs, grabbing our bags and looking for the first lost item (Josh Peck is down a jacket), we boarded a bus and headed to our hotel.

It’s going to be an early night, because at 7:00 am tomorrow morning we’re heading to a TASO facility. We’ll meet with the staff, all HIV positive themselves, that are treating people in their community with the virus. We’ll also be joining them on some home visits in the afternoon.

We’ll check in again after the morning briefing to give you more details about the day ahead.

P.S. Our bus driver is wearing one of the first white ONE bands!

- Kimberly C adena