ABSTRACT

All over Africa, the terrible calamity of AIDS has forced people out of isolation induced by fear, stigma and blame, and into collective action. Out of despair comes the resolution that ‘something must be done’ to confront an impending epidemic threatening life and livelihoods alike. AIDS associations have multiplied, often in consequence of indigenous initiatives. It is one such association, WAMATA1 in Tanzania, on which we focus here, tracking its progress from local self-help support group to highly professional national organisation with major branches in six urban areas, a network of over fifty smaller branches throughout the country, and a youth wing (WAMATA Newsletter, January-March 1999).2 Initially, a response to early deaths amongst the better-off and more educated in Dar es Salaam, its work is now focussed mainly on the impoverished (and amongst these, particularly women and youth). Its major activities are home-based care and counselling, support groups for the affected, preventative education and advocacy. Three issues are highlighted in analysis of this pioneering development: the broader debate about the role of national-level NGOs3 in contemporary development practice and AIDS work; the way class and gender configure in NGO activity; and the dilemmas posed by the professionalising process in AIDS activities. Our aim here is social analysis, not organisational evaluation.