TOGETHER ACT NOW INC.

Together! ACT Now's goals of using unique ways to mitigate the spread of HIV in poor and rural area of Malawi line up with UNAIDS and Malawi's 95-95-95 Initiative. By 2030, this initiative is trying to accomplish:
*95% of all people living with HIV knowing their HIV status.
*95% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection receiving sustained antiretroviral therapy.
*95% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.

Our main program is using theatre for HIV/AIDS Awareness and prevention. We have trained 20 community members in ten strategically positioned villages to be HIV experts. We then work with them to develop HIV drama, songs, and performing art pieces. These local troupes of actors go into a village and perform engaging plays on HIV that both educate and open discussion on a topic clouded in misinformation and silence. Through our research we found that theatre is one of the best ways to promote both discussion and change on stigmatized subjects, such as HIV, in rural and poor areas of the world that have limited access to modern media. In addition to the play we provide free onsite HIV testing, free condoms, provide HIV related activities and we initiative both private and village discussions on HIV.

Our supporting programs include:
*Soccer for HIV Awareness. With this program we found that a demographic of people who wouldn't go see a theatre show would go see a soccer tournament, so we host a soccer tournament and between games provide fun, educational HIV skits and free onsite testing and condoms.
*Rebuilding Primary schools. Studies show that the longer a child is in school the less likely they are to contract HIV. The problem in Malawi is schools that in the 1960's were built for 200 kids now have sometimes 2,000+. This issue is compounded by the fact that a lot of the classrooms have broken roofs and during the rainy season classes are cancelled because they can't learn inside. We work with the communities to rebuild the classrooms so that we can have a higher number of students remaining in school full time.
*Support for Children and young adults with special needs. We believe in a healthy, strong community that includes all individuals and does not discriminate due to handicaps. To support this belief, we provide free wheelchairs, adaptive equipment and physical / occupational therapy for those in need.

Together! ACT Now strongly believes in community support. It is our believe that the program doesn't make the change, but that the community does. Therefore we call ourselves a conduit for Malawian's to support Malawians, which is why we are big supporters of working with Malawian volunteers and changing their perspective from charity being a handout to charity being something that everyone must come together and work together on. We have had huge success implementing this concept. It has really given the power back to the people.

This conduit based approach is supported by a strong leadership team that has years upon years of community development and partnership experience. We work very closely with multiple different government and non-government organizations to make sure our efforts have the most impact in the communities we serve. Through these partnerships we are able to reduce costs and improve results.

Since 2009 we have educated over 125,000 villagers in Malawi on HIV. We have tested over 12,000 people for HIV and provided over 90,000 condoms.

We have rebuilt 25 primary school classrooms as well as 11 houses for teachers.

We have provided over 200 pieces of equipment for Malawians with special needs. These items range from manual wheelchairs to hand bicycle wheelchairs to walkers and everything in between. We also support over 500 physio visits each year for infants to teenagers.

All of our efforts are provided for free to the the community.