The AIDS Support Organization  The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) is an indigenous HIV and AIDS service initiative, registered in Uganda as a non-governmental organisation. It is a pioneer non-public actor in the HIV and AIDS response in Uganda. TASO is a membership organisation with over 4,000 subscriber members. TASO was started in 1987 by a group of medical workers who had witnessed how badly patients showing signs of Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) were being treated in the wards of the Mulago Hospital in Kampala. At first, it was a small, informal group of people meeting to talk about HIV and AIDS and grow into an organisation. It became one of the major HIV and AIDS care organisations in Uganda. When TASO started, Uganda was recovering from a war that brought the current government to power. TASO was founded to provide comfort to patients who were being discriminated against and sometimes abandoned by relatives to die within the hospital compound. As the number of people coming for comfort to this small group grew, counseling became a necessary service to keep those seeking comfort. By 2008, TASO had grown into one of the largest indigenous HIV and AIDS services organisation in Uganda. After Christopher Kaleeba, a radiographer, tested positive for HIV and suffered stigma and discrimination by his co-workers in Mulago Hospital, he suggested to his wife (Noerine Kaleeba) and her friends that a support group be formed to encourage those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS within the hospital. A small group, composed of health workers and some patients, were allocated a room in the Polio Clinic at Mulago Hospital where they began offering clinical out-patient services run by Elly Katabira as an AIDS Clinic. In 1989, TASO hosted Philly Lutaaya, a well-known musician, AIDS activist, and the first prominent person to put a human face to AIDS in Uganda. His song "Alone" was adopted as an anthem in TASO as well as many other AIDS groups in Uganda and many other countries. Following the example of Philly Lutaaya, clients who were gifted in music, dance and drama began performing in local communities to sensitize them on HIV and AIDS. The use of music, dance and drama was replicated in all the TASO Centers and became a major tool for crowd mobilisation and community sensitisation. At the end of 1993, TASO had expanded from one district to seven districts in Uganda. Together with another organisation called Traditional and modern Health practitioners Together Against AIDS (THETA), TASO pioneered collaboration with traditional healers in 1992 to give them basic counseling skills as well as knowledge about HIV infection.