The Integrated Service on Health and Development Organization (in its previous name ISAPSO) was established in 1997 with a dream to see a HIV free society in Ethiopia. So far, it has made a significant impact and registered remarkable results contributing to the national effort to realize the dream.
For the past 27 years ISHDO has worked towards breaking the silence surrounding HIV/AIDS by creating awareness, fighting stigma and discrimination, producing and distributing IEC (Information, Education, Communication), promoting treatment services in Drop-in Centers and pushing for social mobilization.
To minimize the death rate due to AIDS, ISHDO works in partnership with national and international funding organizations and GO and NGO stakeholders.
Although ISHDO has made great strides in the past years, the continuation of the fight against the HIV/AIDS endemic is not a choice but an obligation. There are still helpless orphans and elderly individuals that need our help today and will need our help in the future.
The virus has the potential to evolve and develop resistance to the drugs used to fight HIV/AIDS. Therefore, no one strategy is absolute; rather, individual interventions need to deepen their content while working with other projects to reach the entire circumference of care and support.
When we say a great job has been done towards awareness creation, it is by no means to say that everyone is aware of preventative measures, it is by no means to say stigma and discrimination have been eradicated, and it is by no means to conclude that our work is done.
Although a great job has been done in this regard, progress requires a change in attitude towards HIV/AIDS and thorough knowledge of transmission, suppression, and prevention.
To make this knowledge fit into a changing society we must impart these skills throughout cultural elements, economic circumstances and environmental developments.
Change in national attitude will never be a time bound project; thus, we continue to promote, support, and strengthen our health institutions and strategies that accelerate the work on HIV prevention, care and support, livelihood development.
We, therefore, again call upon our partners to support us in realizing our dream of building a HIV-free and economically self-reliant society.