Missions & Objectives   

Mission

Taiwan Lourdes Association (hereinafter "TLA") is a nonprofit organization, which, by responding to the call of the Gospel, advocates for the dignity and value of people living with HIV/AIDS (hereinafter "PLWHA") and offers unconditional love and acceptance according to the principle of justice and charity.

Objectives

Provide community-based services that improve the quality of life of PLWHA.

Advocate for the human rights of PLWHA.

Through HIV/AIDS education, increase public awareness of the impact of HIV and break off the stigma and discrimination against the disease and PLWHA.

Highlights of Activities

Established in 1997, TLA marks its 19th anniversary this year. The outcome of this year could be described in the following dimensions:

Slight fluctuation of service demand

The number of newly opened cases with multiple needs has slightly decreased, due to the reduction of social workers and a shortage of instructors. However, the number of cases with multiple needs and with extended service duration (including cross-year cases) has been on the rise. In the future, more efficient and more effective measures should be taken to combine with all kinds of resources. Meanwhile, the demand of Internet service has had a slight upward trend, showing that TLA has adapted new service delivery methods in response to the generalization of smart phones and to the change of interactive modes. The overall reach of our services to PLWHA has continued to grow.

The diversification of the target public for HIV/AIDS education and the increase of coverage

Our service of HIV/AIDS education has seen significant growth with further expansion in campus, enterprises, social welfare organizations, and MSM communities. This has allowed the knowledge on HIV/AIDS prevention and on reducing the hard from drugs to reach a greater public audience. It has also been an important opportunity to build the connection with HIV/AIDS-friendly organizations and new resources. The sustainably increasing number of invitations and diversification of hosting organizations also shows that the quality of TLA’s education program has been wildly recognized.

Elaboration of issues and services

Transition farm service

The "Morning Dew" transition farm service remains stable and has increased its clients. Courses and activities have both improved in quantity and quality.

Policies and rights

Despite of the amendment of the HIV Infection Control and Patient Rights Protection Act, future policies remain unclear. We work closely with other members of the HIV/AIDS Law Amendment League Taiwan to pursue the negotiation with the relevant authorities in order to propel the rights of PLWHA.

Drugs harm reduction & Aging

On the issue of aging and drugs harm reduction, we continue to run harm reduction support groups and host workshops, case studies, and supervision sessions for experience sharing.

Dialogues and collaboration 

We pursue efforts to dialogue with PLWHA, people, heath care providers and social workers, integrating the resources of enterprises, schools and civil organizations. Collaborations with enterprises have been initiated to organize the VIVA GO BUS education series at remote areas such as Hualien, Taitung and Pingtung. The feedback from the PLWHA participants shows that the series did help them to improve self-care awareness and to establish a local support network.

We have maintained good relations with all communities and animated exchanges of information, which allowed us to be updated of the latest policies and to react efficiently.

In addition to traditional ways, new mechanisms of fundraising have also been integrated, such as iGoods and Pi Wallet App. New approaches and platforms are also under evaluation to innovate future fundraising.

Statistical summary of services

Case management

287 cases with multiple needs (228 in Taipei and 59 in Taichung) were opened in 2015, of them 256 were males (89%) and 31 females (11%). The number of female clients increased by 2%, comparing to 2014. Major serviced group are PLWHA between 31 and 40 years old with economic needs as their major issue, which counts for 97 people. Total financial aid counts NT$1,696,657- (including referral). In addition, we offered telephone follow-up, counseling, social work intervention, employment service, half-way home and transition farm services according to their actual needs.

The number of cases with simple needs counted 2,476 people. The services provided include HIV/AIDS consulting, outreach, HIV test, seminars, social activities, group counseling, and prison visits etc. Our data show that more than 70% of the cases have been served by TLA for a long time (including continuously served cases and re-opened cases). It can be seen that long-term social workers need to devote their time and energy to discuss relevant issues before they can meet their needs.

Web-based radio/digital & paper publications

Plus Radio

"Lourdes fans" , the official web-based radio, has delivered 52 episodes in 2015. Clicks through TLA’s website have reached 1045 times and interactive real-time messages to presenters have reached 858 messages. An in-depth interview with foreign PLWHA living in Taiwan highlighted this session. Mei, one of the presenters, was awarded by CDC Taiwan for her contribution to the community awareness on HIV/AIDS by this creative method.

"PILIPALA BOOM" hosted by Positive Alliance has broadcasted on Thursday night from January to October. The program was taken over by "pourquoi show" , also assumed by Positive Alliance, on October 22. Since then, Plus Radio formally merged  "Lourdes fans"  and "pourquoi show".

Digital publications

Currently, there are 43 e-books on TLA's website shelf, among which the Manual of Harm Reduction for Recreational Drug Use has been consulted 10,557 times. This shows the public concern on this matter.

Paper publications (only those published or updated in 2015 were counted)

Research and development

Project of amendment of the HIV Infection Control and Patient Rights Protection Act

The HIV Infection Control and Patient Rights Protection Act was amended and promulgated on February 4, 2015, under the common efforts of TLA and partner NGOs. The current amendments included the lift of the ban of entry on HIV positive foreigners, the return of HIV/AIDS medical subsidies to the NHI system, and the provisions of mandatory HIV testing. We will keep watching the related measures.

Survey on the condition of the lives of PWLHA in Taiwan

The 254 valid questionnaires collected have demonstrated that the current concerns of PLWHA included medical privacy, friendly medical resources, needs of partnership (affection) and comorbidity problem.

Issues on Aging, HIV community pharmacies, recreational drugs and foreign PLWHA in Taiwan 

With the progress of HIV/AIDS treatment, most of PLWHA can maintain a stable health condition. Meanwhile, some of them start to face aging issues, an increased trend of needs for housing and care has been observed. Therefore, apart from hosting seminars and workshops on the matter, we worked on the development of a mutual aid network to complement an elderly care network.

To enhance the convenience of medicine delivery and to increase the choice of the drug offered, we urged the government to implement community-friendly pharmacies.

Recreational drug user and foreign PLWHA in Taiwan are two issues that our R&D team has been focusing on.

International relations and scholar publications

International relations

We invited Canadian HIV-positive social worker Christian HUI to share his experience at TLA’s international workshop. TLA also collaborated with Taiwan International Queer Film Festival (TIQFF) to host a workshop with French HIV activist Vincent Lecercq (Coalition PLUS / AIDES Association).

Collaboration with the Beijing-based Aizhixing Institute of Health Education has contributed to the broadcasting of Plus Radio in mainland China.

TLA was also the chief coordinator for a community cultivation plan funded by the Developed Asian Sexual Diversity Network (DAN).

TLA was invited by Taiwan CDC to participate and exhibit as a community partner at the 12th Taipei International AIDS Conference hosted by the same authority.

Scholar publications

TLA published four scholar articles in 2015, including:

Wu, Ziwei, Hsu, Paul. Working experience of harm reduction groups for IDUs. Congress communication by Taiwan Association of Social Workers. March, 2015.

Tsai, Chun-mei. The Qualitative Research of Life Experience of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Taiwan. Taiwan Social Work Journal No. 14, pp. 1-55. July, 2015.

Yang, Jiachi. The Morning Dew transition farm of Taiwan Lourdes Association: A new starting point for drug users. in Catholic Weekly no. 362, p. 19. October, 2015.

Yang, Jiachi. How to talk to female teenagers about sex and HIV/AIDS. in Lourdes Care, no. 93, pp.24-33. December, 2015.

Website and Facebook Fans Page

Website (www.lourdes.org.tw)

In 2015, the frequency of visitors to TLA’s website has increased while other reach indicators all dropped, compared to 2014. Our evaluation demonstrated that the most popular section of our website was HIV/AIDS news. But staff change in 2015 has resulted in slow update of this popular section and subsequently affected the frequency of visits. Major visitors to our website still come from Taiwan and the most viewed pages are infection/test-related information. This shows that TLA’s website is still an important platform of HIV/AIDS-related knowledge for many people.

Facebook Fan Page

FB Fan Page (www.facebook.com/lourdes.fans)

The accumulated “like” numbers, from the opening of the page till the end of 2015, has reached 4,490, with a total number of views as 1,233,970 times. Males are more likely to “Like” the page than females, the statistical mode falls between 18-44 years old. TLA’s Facebook Fans Page provides real-time HIV/AIDS knowledge, health education and life information. Due to the success of the Page, New Taipei City government has appointed TLA to manage its Sexual Health Bus 192-1 Fans Page.

Events/Awards

Events

Awards