Who is DiraSengwe
Born in Durban. Named for action.
Dira Sengwe — “Take Action” — is a South African NGO established in 2003 by members of the local organizing committee of the groundbreaking XIIIth International AIDS Conference held in Durban in 2000. Its purpose: to use national and international conferences to mobilize people around HIV/AIDS — keeping science, policy and the voices of people living with HIV at the centre of the response.
0Delegates at Durban 2000
0Journalists who carried the story
0Scientists signed the Durban Declaration
0National conferences convened
About Us — The Origin
One conference changed the trajectory of a pandemic.
In July 2000, at the height of AIDS denialism, Durban hosted the XIIIth International AIDS Conference — the first ever held in the Global South, and still one of the largest AIDS conferences ever held in Africa. Justice Edwin Cameron's keynote laid bare the arithmetic of survival: he could afford $1,000 a month to stay alive; most South Africans could not. The Durban Declaration — signed by over 5,000 physicians and scientists, eleven Nobel laureates among them, and published in Nature — affirmed the science beyond dispute.
The awareness generated by the thousands of journalists in that hall became pressure; pressure broke the price of antiretroviral treatment; and an international movement rose to fund treatment in Africa — leading to the establishment of the PEPFAR Programme and the Global Fund. This is the legacy DiraSengwe exists to carry forward.
History of DiraSengwe
2000
The turning point
The XIII International AIDS Conference, Durban ICC. Chair: Prof Hoosen (Jerry) Coovadia. The conference galvanized global advocacy for affordable, equitable access to antiretroviral treatment.
2002
The committee reconvenes
With a national AIDS programme still stalled even as treatment became affordable, the Foundation for Professional Development reconvened the AIDS 2000 organizing committee to establish a national conference.
2003
DiraSengwe is founded
The 1st South African AIDS Conference is held, chaired by Prof Jerry Coovadia — the beginning of a biennial national platform for science, policy and activism.
2023
The Lifetime Achievement Award
Twenty years on, DiraSengwe introduces its most prestigious honour — first awarded to Prof Jerry Coovadia, who fearlessly opposed denialism at its height.
Today
Still taking action
Conferences, awards, publications and the Oral History Project — keeping AIDS at the forefront of research and policy, and making room for the voices of people living with HIV.
Upcoming
The next chapter is being written.
The SA AIDS Conference series continues at the Durban ICC. Join researchers, activists, clinicians and communities at the next national gathering.
Visit the conference site
