About.
"We are people who use drugs. We are people who have been marginalized and discriminated against; we have been killed, harmed unnecessarily, put in jail, depicted as evil, and stereotyped as dangerous and disposable. Now it is time to raise our voices as citizens, establish our rights and reclaim the right to be our own spokespersons striving for self-representation and self-empowerment."
- from the Vancouver Declaration. |
Established in 2017
SANPUD was established in 2017, with financial, technical and administrative support from the International Network pf People Who Use Drugs (INPUD), Mainline, and TBHIV Care. SANPUD became a registered NGO in 2018, and we aim to support our members, regional networks of people who use drugs, by providing them with financial, logistical, administrative and technical support.
Our Vision
SANPUD envisions a world where 1: people are, most of the time, able to make conscious, well-informed decisions about how and when to use, or not to use, drugs, 2: drug policies do not increase the harms to people who use drugs, restrict access to health care or remove autonomy, and 3: the responses to people who use drugs, do not perpetuate oppression, marginalisation, stigmatisation and economic exclusion..
Our Aim
A South Africa where people who use drugs are no longer criminalised, and enjoy the same rights as those guaranteed to all South Africans in the constitution, without marginalisation, exclusion or stigma based on their use of drugs.
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Our Objectives
- To provide a legitimate, coordinated and collective representative voice for peer-led networks of people who use drugs and ensure their active participation in the development of policies, legislation and research that impacts on their rights and wellbeing.
- To facilitate the establishment, capacitation and participation of peer-led regional networks that advocate for the rights and appropriate responses to people who use drugs at community, metropolitan and provincial levels.
- To contribute to the dismantling of the stigmatising and inaccurate narratives that dominate the discourse around drug use and the response to people who use drugs.
- To advocate for the provision of harm reduction services, interventions and approaches to people who use drugs as the standard response in the provision of health and social services and across the criminal justice system for people who inject drugs.
- To advocate for the rights of people who use drugs at national, regional and international level.
- To establish partnerships, collaborations and projects with business, civil society and government for the benefits of the representative groups and PWUD.
- To hold government at national and regional level accountable for the harms inflicted on people who use drugs and entire communities as a result of current policies, legislative frameworks and responses to drugs and people who use drugs.
Our Activities
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Our Funders
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Supporting & Research Partners
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More about our partners.Read more about our partnership with TB HIV Care and the services that they offer to people who use drugs. The provision of needles and syringes has been stopped in eThekwini, with devastating consequences. [Click the image below]
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