What is FACE AIDS?
FACE AIDS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to mobilizing and inspiring students to fight AIDS in Africa.
FACE AIDS aims to build a broad-based movement of students seeking to increase global health equality. Working with Partners In Health (PIH), a respected health and social justice organization working to provide healthcare for the poor in nine countries, FACE AIDS runs income-generating projects with HIV associations in the Kirehe District of eastern Rwanda.
These projects help members gain income by making beaded AIDS awareness pins. HIV association members place a portion of this income into a group savings account that eventually provides each association with startup capital for a sustainable small business, offering ongoing economic empowerment to the HIV association members. Students in FACE AIDS then distribute these pins in fundraising and awareness campaigns on campuses across the U.S. During these campaigns, FACE AIDS members spread a message of solidarity and social justice and inspire their peers to take action against global health inequity.
FACE AIDS donates 100% of student fundraising proceeds, along with 1:1 matching grants from private donors, to PIH in Rwanda to support comprehensive healthcare for pin-makers and their communities. Since 2005, FACE AIDS has raised over $1.4 million to fight AIDS in Africa, and recruited over 150 chapters across the U.S.
By funding PIH, FACE AIDS connects students to the most inspirational and effective organization fighting AIDS on the ground and directly helps the pinmakers and their neighbors in Rwanda.
How did FACE AIDS start?
In the summer of 2005, the three co-founders of FACE AIDS spent a summer working in a refugee camp in Zambia, where they met a woman named Mama Katele. Mama Katele was a grandmother living with AIDS, and she told the co-founders about the devastating impacts of HIV/AIDS in her community. The students realized how little their generation knew about the human costs of the pandemic, despite widespread statistics about the ravages of AIDS. Determined to help Mama Katele and engage their peers in a fight for global health, the co-founders developed a plan in which individuals affected by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa could gain income by making beaded AIDS awareness pins. The FACE AIDS pins, in turn, would offer a basis for a broad-based movement to mobilize, educate, and inspire students in the U.S. to take action. Students across the U.S. soon embraced the FACE AIDS mission, forming chapters, selling pins, and leading a youth movement to fight AIDS.
Where is FACE AIDS located? In what countries do you work?
The National FACE AIDS office is located in Palo Alto, California. Despite being based in California, there are chapters at schools all around the United States – you can find out if there is a chapter in your area at www.faceaids.org/join. Our Africa Program Director is based in the Kirehe District of eastern Rwanda, where we work with Partners In Health (www.pih.org). We also continue to support the FACE AIDS HIV associations in Zambia, although their activities are monitored by another nonprofit, FORGE.
What is relationship between FACE AIDS and Partners In Health?
To maximize the impact of student efforts, FACE AIDS donates all student fundraising and one-to-one private matching donations to the Boston-based nonprofit, Partners In Health (PIH), to support medical care for FACE AIDS pin-makers and their communities in Rwanda. PIH is now considered one of the best healthcare organizations worldwide, providing free healthcare for the poor in ten countries around the world. Dr. Paul Farmer started PIH with Ophelia Dahl and Jim Kim while he was still a medical student. PIH helps inspire students by showing them their tremendous ability to make a difference in the fight against AIDS.
How does FACE AIDS spend my donation?
Donations to FACE AIDS are used to: provide income for our pin-makers affected by HIV/AIDS in Rwanda; support our campaigns to engage students across the United States; and provide matching funds to inspire our chapters' grassroots fundraising for Partners In Health clinics in Rwanda.
