Afya Mzuri, the Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS) and the Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC) have come into partnership to establish a joint Resource Centre with two year support from Care International. The purpose of this project is to improve access to information about HIV and AIDS for those in greatest need- people infected with and affected by the virus.This will be achieved through the establishment of fully-functioning HIV Resource Centres in Lusaka, Choma and Chipata with targeted services for people living with HIV and AIDS, to include free access to the internet and computing facilities, a meeting space for people living with HIV, access to collections of electronic and print reference materials on all issues relating to HIV, access to a wide range of IEC materials that include posters, leaflets and videos to support activities and outreach services to people living with HIV and rural communities.The project also includes the reproduction and production of new and existing IEC materials for people living with HIV, with establishment of effective systems for the distribution of materials across the country, as well as technical support and the distribution of materials to other HIV Resource Centres to improve general service provision.

The Zambia Association for HIV Resource Centres is a collaborative group of individuals involved in developing and managing HIV resource centres. The group started meeting in August 2002 with the vision of the following terms of reference:

• To provide a forum for support, information sharing, skill sharing and capacity building among those responsible for developing and managing resource centres for HIV and AIDS and related information in Zambia
• To facilitate the collection and organization of HIV and AIDS information in Zambia, and to ensure a systematic approach to it’s collection through identifying the specialities of each organization
• To facilitate the dissemination of HIV and AIDS information across Zambia
• To identify gaps in the availability and provision of HIV and AIDS information in Zambia, and to collaborate with other organizations in the production of relevant materials
• To evaluate the quality and relevance of available IEC materials relating to HIV and AIDS
• To collaborate in the sourcing of IEC materials with the aim of reducing unit costs to each individual organization

Membership of the group is currently drawn from 20 organizations.