Cleric urges public to support Taso

By Godfrey Ssempijja & Maurice Kulabako

The Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Aids Support Organisation (TASO), Fr. Joseph Ssebayigga has asked corporate organisations and individuals of good will to give moral and financial assistance to the organization, so that it can continue its voluntary services to the HIV/Aids infected and affected persons.

Sebayigga also asked HIV/AIDS infected persons not to spread the virus, but to continue fighting the disease, until it is completely eradicated.

Ssebayigga further thanked the UN and other local/international organisations that have funded TASO and enabled it to help HIV/AIDS patients in the various parts of the country.

Ssebayigga said that if HIV/AIDS service organisations like TASO received due financial and technical aid, the deadly virus would be completely eradicated from communities.

Fr. Ssebayigga was addressing the 18th general assembly of TASO at the organisation’s home in Entebbe, Wakiso district, on Friday.

The head of TASO Entebbe, Robert Kadando, explained that the organization currently has few staff-members, following the conclusion of the USAID funded project, in June 2014, which forced them to lay off some workers.

Kadando explained that last year, the organization managed to equip 96 young people with vocational skills, to enable them become self-reliant.

The organisation is strained by the ever increasing number of patients, which doesn’t rhyme with the small staff body. 

Kadando said that TASO has worked hard to reduce the number of children born with HIV/AIDS. Just 9 out of 108 babies that were tested last year, were found to have the virus.