A new group created recently at Virginia Tech strives to fight for social justice and global health equity. FACE AIDS develops chapters at colleges and high schools all over the country and raises money to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa.
The national branch was founded at Stanford University by three students – Jonny, Katie, and Lauren – who took a trip to Zambia to work at a refugee camp. While they were there, they met Mama Katele, a grandmother in the village who was living with AIDS. Mama Katele was the only person in the entire community of over 20,000 who was willing to speak openly about AIDS. They were inspired by Mama Katele’s story and came back to America speaking highly of her heart for advocacy. Mama Katele died shortly after the students left Zambia without ever receiving medicine that cost less than 50 cents a day.
Through Mama Katele, the students realized how little our generation knows about the AIDS epidemic and the human suffering it causes. So they developed a plan. Their plan was to actually work with the communities most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic to allow individuals in those communities to gain financial stability through making beaded AIDS awareness pins. The FACE AIDS pins are each hand made by someone that is somehow affected by AIDS. Each pin comes with a biography of the person who made it. With the money from the pins, these individuals have created sustainable local businesses, bought basic needs such as food and health insurance, as well as saved up for higher education.
The money from the pins and other fundraising efforts of the individual chapters goes straight to
another organization called Partners in Health. A partner in Health then sets up savings and loans programs to fund things such as higher education, agricultural projects, and other health care.
The Virginia Tech FACE AIDS chapter is very new but has already started fundraising and is currently looking for new members. They recently received their pins and will be selling them in the upcoming weeks.
If you would like more information please:
· Visit faceaids.org
· Email vtfaceaids@gmail.com
· Like FACE AIDS: Virginia Tech
· Follow them on Twitter – @VTfaceaids