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
Projects |
Content |
Outcome |
Remarks |
DIRECT SERVICE |
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Community Care |
Social work intervention, resources linking, advocacy |
Cases with multiple needs opened: 287; M/F ratio: 9/1 Cases with simple needs opened: 2,476 |
Total PLWHA reached: more than 28,000 |
Financial Aid |
Life, medical, housing (including referring to other organizations) |
1,530 times; total aid amount= NT1,696,657 |
|
Counseling Services |
Support through telephone and formal counseling |
7,853 times |
|
Employment Services |
Consulting, matching, “second-hand” social skill training |
257 times |
|
Referral Service |
Housing, financial, employment and other |
165 times |
|
Halfway Shelter Home |
Housing, nutrition supplies, psychological support, health management, employment consulting |
New moved-in: 30 people; Meals delivery : 3,165 times Psychological support: 894 times Medical consulting: 461 times |
|
Lourdes Transition Farm |
Farming, book club, spiritual growth courses, leisure activities |
Residents: 16 people; Services: 241 times; Courses: 138 times; Activities: 60 |
|
Outreach Service |
Hospitals, client’s home or other places |
274 times |
|
Phone Call and Internet Information Services |
Providing information by telephone, LINE App, emails, and internet forum system. |
Telephone service: 1,660 times; Internet service: 936 times |
|
HIV Test Service |
Providing anonymous HIV test |
102 times |
|
Drop-in Friendship Centers |
Support, leisure, meeting, conferences |
1,289 times |
Taipei / Taichung / Taoyuan |
Workshops |
Topics on treatment, adaptation, magnetic couples, intimacy, HIV+ coming-out |
32 workshops; 569 participants |
|
Support Groups |
Newly diagnosed support group, Drug anonymous harm reduction group (DAHR); Support group in Taoyuan, Love to smile women support group, Middle Age Support Group, Family of positives support group, Positives support group in Taichung |
Newly diagnosed support group: 22 sessions, 149 participants; IDU: 36 sessions, 231 participants; DAHR : 42 sessions ; 252 participants ; Taoyuan group: 18 sessions, 196 participants; Women group: 1 session, 4 women ; Middle Age group: 12 sessions, 121 participants; Family group: 11 sessions, 72 participants; Taichung group: 3 sessions, 52 participants; Total: 145 sessions; 1077 participants. |
|
Recreational Activities |
Festival feats, one-day tours, self-growth courses, commemoration, Sister Lin story-telling |
75 sessions; 992 participants |
|
Online Chat-Room |
Information providing in chat-room and peer support |
18 sessions; 197 participants |
Chat-room service has been closed in May and replaced by another platform |
Online Services |
Facebook, Line App, Forum |
4,755 times |
|
Prison Visits and Counseling |
Individual/group/correspondence counseling and visits |
Individual counseling: 70 persons; Group counseling: 129 sessions, 3,506 participants; Correspondence support: 173 times. |
|
Positive Alliance |
Stimulating rights awareness, self-help and mutual assistance |
39 meetings and activities, 1470 participants. Members: 35 |
|
Poz Action Conference |
With the theme “Action for the better life”, the objective of the conference was to break off the interior stigma and to reconstruct the self, viewpoint and ideas. |
1 session, 67 participants. |
Transformed from the original Happy Life Conference |
Drug users’ family support plan |
To reduce the harm of drugs on mind and body, and help drug users return to their families and to the society. |
68 cases; 208 personal visits; 936 phone call follow-ups. 74 financial aid cases (NT153,130-); 34 referrals. 42 group counseling services (325 participants). 1 workshop (50 participants) 9 education sessions, 5,022 participants. 79 consulting services |
|
STAFF MEMBERS TRAINING AND SUPERVISION |
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Continuous Training |
Workshops and training courses |
Total training time:1225.5 hours; average training per member: 64 hours. |
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Supervising |
Individual and group supervision |
Individual/group supervision: 113 sessions Case study: 142 sessions |
|
Volunteers Recruitment and Training |
Recruiting and training new volunteers |
3 recruiting sessions; 80 participants; 4 training and supervising sessions, 40 participants. |
|
Workshops for Helpers |
On-demand training courses and workshops |
46 on-demand training courses, 1,826 participants; 9 workshops (professional), 166 participants |
|
EDUCATION AND PUBLICATION |
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Education |
HIV/AIDS education toward schools teachers or students, and the general public |
220 sessions, 30,840 participants. (64 sessions more than in 2014) |
|
Publications |
Brochures and e-books |
Total circulations: 28,000 copies; 43 e-books. |
|
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)
Lourdes Care |
2014 Annual Rport |
2015 Positive families – for young PLWHA |
2015 Positive families – Vietnamese version |
2015 Pink guidelines for females |
2015 DA intimate journals |
2105 When you meet a PLWHA |
2015 Free postcard and stickers – “Mom, I have something to tell you.” |
2015 Positive families – Braille version |
2015 Morning Dew Transition Farm (multiple employment program) |
2015 Do you really know HIV/AIDS? |
2015 Manual of Harm Reduction for Recreational Drug Use |
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
January |
Amendment of the HIV Infection Control and Patient Rights Protection Act, lifting the ban of entry for HIV-positive foreigners. Affirmation of the return of HIV/AIDS medical subsidies to NHI system in 2017. |
February |
Host Forum on condition of treatment of PLWHA, in order to understand the needs and obstacles and to find feasible strategies. |
March
|
VIVA GO BUS program runs over Taiwan to gather the opinions of PLWHA for the reference of development of service and policy advocacy. |
Update and reprint of Pink guidelines for females, include Q&A on worried about infection, care after infection, and how to face and cope with families. |
|
Re-election of members of the board of directors and the board of supervisors. Sister Lin Ji was elected chairman. |
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April |
Open LINE App hotline service, in response to the needs of new generation. |
May |
Adjust the service strategy: cloture of "Wednesday Club"online chat-room, replaced by Line App group peer service |
October
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The multiple-functional hall on 3rd floor of Morning Dew transition farm was inaugurated. The farm runs gradually on track and created a synergy for change. |
Plus Radio presenter Mei was awarded by Taiwan CDC for the creative HIV/AIDS education and the service without borders. |
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"PILIPALA BOOM" taken over by "pourquoi show" which is also assumed by Positive Alliance. |
|
November |
Canadian HIV activist Christian HUI shared his personal stories, serving and advocacy experience on workshop hosted by TLA. |
"Happy Life Conference" taken over by Positive Alliance and renamed "Poz Action Conference". More than 60 PLWHA gathered for topics including self-stigma and advocacy. |
|
December
|
Taichung drug users' family service was awarded by Taichung City Government Bureau of Social Affairs. |
Cloture of Taoyuan LGBT center and closer collaboration with Taoyuan Health Bureau and Taoyuan General Hospital for more diversity and flexibility of activities. |
Awards
March |
Taipei City Government |
Paul HSU, executive director, awarded as outstanding social worker |
Trophy |
April |
Ministry of Health and Welfare |
Vicky WU, director of direct service of TLA's Taipei office, received merit award |
Trophy |
October |
Ministry of Health and Welfare |
Mei, presenter of Plus Radio and board member of TLA, received merit award |
Trophy |
November
|
Taiwan After Care Association |
TLA received merit award for helping after care service |
Trophy |
|
"Faithful partner" of 70th anniversary of Taiwan After Care Association |
Trophy |