ARASA was founded in year 2002, having started out as a project within LAC,( Legal Assistance Centre) They are now a regional organisation for southern and eastern Africa, with Kenya and Uganda as two other countries they operate in. They have staff in Cape Town and a training centre in Johannesburg. They are to a large extent funded by NorAID and SIDA aids team in Lusaka, 60%.
ARASA works with a rights based approach to HIV and TB. ARASA support their partner organisations with the kind of training and support that their partner organisations request. They work for policy changes in each country. They try to influence parliamentarians.
Leadership issues, conflict management are asked for. But Arasa don’t provide that, cause they focus on aids advocacy.
Some partners of ARASA are: Voice of Hope in Irungu, LAC in Windhoek, Tonata from Positive Vibes, Rights, Not Rescue Trust (by and for sexual workers)..
Leaders, political, traditional and religious leaders, often perpetuate patriarchical messages. And when they try to take action against for instance passion killings, they tend to do it with ineffective symbol politics. The politically initiated prayer day (March 6, 2014) against passion killing was given as one example of that. The week after the prayer day, the killings continued as it was reported in many printed media reports of Namibia.
ARASA has learned that local interventions are more effective if religion and religious leaders are part of the intervention. .
Felicita Hikuam, deputy Director, +264 61 300 381, felicita@arasa.org.na
53 Mont Blanc Street, Windhoek
P O Box 97100, Maerua Mall, Windhoek
www.arasa.info
