Dira Sengwe (take action) is a South African based NGO that was established in 2003 by the members of the local organizing committee of the groundbreaking XIII^th International AIDS Conference held in Durban in 2000. The 2000 Conference still remains one of the largest AIDS Conference ever held in Africa and is acknowledged as the turning point in the struggle to ensure affordable AIDS treatment. Following the international awareness generated by the more than 2000 journalists who attended the 2000 Conference, successful pressure was exerted on the pharmaceutical industry to dramatically reduce the cost of AIDS treatment and an international movement was begun to secure donor support for treatment in Africa. This eventually led to the establishment of the PEPFAR Programme and the Global Fund.