About Us
History
TBpeople was born in June 2016, when a small group of TB survivors from Eastern Europe and Central Asia came together in Bratislava, Slovakia, for a regional workshop “Mobilizing the community of people with experience of TB in Eastern Europe and Central Asia”. The workshop was organized by TB Europe Coalition with the support from the Stop TB Partnership. Over the period of two years, geographical coverage of TBpeople grew to global, it added a second membership tier for people who have not had TB but were personally affected by the disease, obtained legal registration (first in Georgia and then in United Kingdom) and initiated its country chapter pilot. TBpeople continues to grow and develop dynamically, driven by its mission, to Unite People to Defeat TB, and guided by its Strategy.
Membership
Membership in TBpeople is individual, voluntary and free of charge and does not envisage any entrance, membership or other mandatory fees. There are three types of membership in TBpeople: full, associated and honorary. Full membership is open to people with experience of TB. Associated membership is open to people, who haven’t had TB, but whose close ones (friends or relatives) have or had TB. Honorary membership is open to people, who made an outstanding contribution to the fight against TB, to mobilization of community of people affected by TB, or to care and support of people with TB.
Strategy
In March 2019, TBpeople held a strategic planning meeting in Istanbul, resulting in formulation of four strategic priorities of the network. This Strategy defines overall vectors of TBpeople’s work by the end of 2022, which coincides with the deadline for the achievement of targets of the UN Political Declaration on the Fight Against TB .
Country Chapters
Taking into account the need to strengthen the network’s linkages with the communities on the ground, and being conscious about language limitations, which could prevent many people affected by TB from joining the network, early in 2018 TBpeople started piloting its country representation model. So far, country chapters were set up in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines and Ukraine with a few more currently being established. The pilot was started to help TBpeople shape its community mobilization model, which should become an instrument for community mobilization worldwide, and to ensure the connection of the global network with grassroot communities on the ground.