Noerine Kaleeba

Through TASO, Noerine has pioneered and led the way in Uganda's response to the HIV/AIDs scourge for over 30 years. Noerine founded TASO after the untimely death of her husband, who himself was a physician. Noerine and her husband were the first couple in Uganda to come out publicly about thier HIV/AIDs status thereby drawing around them a support group of other couples who were facing the same predicament. Following the death of her husband, Noerine avowed to "do something" about this disease before what she expected to be her own coming death. She then dedicated her effort for over 20 years into building TASO as the main institution for the wholistic support of HIV/AIDs affected families and victims. Today, TASO is widely considered the pioneer in this field and its model has informed Uganda's national response to the disease

Noerine's new idea in 1987 was that HIV/AIDs is not a "curse" nor a homosexual disease, but a regular illness that requires regular treatment and care.

In the late 80's, early '90s HIV/AIDs was considered a homosexual disease or a curse and patients were subjected to severe stigma. Healthcare workers often refused to take care of HIV/AIDs patients, viewing them as wrong-doers. In addition, ARVs were not known at the time and a diagnosis of the deasease was usually taken as a death sentense.

TASO's initial strategy was to remove stigma associated with the deasease in order to allow for HIV/AIDs patients to die with dignity. Noerine's husband came out publicly about his status and called for others to do the same. TASO therefore began as a support organization for HIV/AIDs positive/affected families as Noerine also thought herself to be positive. She grew the organization with a mind to make it fully independent of herself as she also expected to succumb to the diease. It was only 10years ago that she learned that she and her husband were a discodant couple. This frame of mind enabled Noerine to build TASO into the scalable and sustainable insitution it is todate

Noerine was born and raised within a polygamous family. She attributes her entrepreneurial sprit to the early experiences of having to "fight for food" with her own siblings. She dropped out of formal school to take up professional training as a clinical psycologist. This step she belive prepared her best to handle the diagnosis and subsequent demise of her husband. Just as she was used to doing, Noerine responded to the death of her husband with a singular focus to find a solution to the HIV/AIDs menace.