Elton John AIDS Foundation and Family Health International Announce HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Funds for the New Millennium -- January 19, 2000

LONDON, UK and ARLINGTON, VA, USA--The Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) has announced support for a new fund, which will be managed by Family Health International (FHI), to strengthen grassroots responses to HIV/AIDS in eight of the countries hit by the pandemic.

This "rapid-response" fund will provide small grants for community-based initiatives, including public education, prevention interventions for youth and other groups at high risk of HIV infection, care for orphans and other vulnerable children, and care and psychosocial support for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Based on a highly successful rapid-response program created by Family Health International, which funded prevention and care activities by more than 200 local organizations in 15 countries from 1993 to 1997, the EJAF/FHI Rapid Response Fund offers a flexible mechanism for mobilizing community action against HIV/AIDS and adds another vehicle to several of FHI's HIV/AIDS programs in more than 30 countries.

According to Elton John, "Since our inception in 1993, the Foundation has supported a National Hardship Fund in the UK that has helped many thousands of people living with HIV. In the US, our contribution to the National AIDS Fund has supported hundreds of local organizations in over 40 states. With the enormous increase in HIV infection across other parts of the world, we are keen to help grassroots organizations face the wide range of challenges caused by AIDS, most notably poverty." He continued, "I am delighted that my foundation has joined forces with Family Health International to provide a Rapid Response Fund that will help nurture some of the most creative and effective responses to the epidemic."

The need for such a mechanism is clear in many countries where communities are struggling to respond to skyrocketing HIV infections without adequate social and health support systems, especially for the socioeconomic groups at greatest risk of HIV infection. Eight such countries have been targeted for this initiative: Brazil and Honduras in Latin America; Cambodia and India in Asia; Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda in Africa; and, the Russian Federation in Eastern Europe.

The Rapid Response Fund (RRF) grants will be made available primarily to indigenous nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based groups, and the maximum funding level for each grant will be £3,000 or US$4,980. FHI offices in each country will identify potential grantees, solicit grant applications, screen proposals and select members of a national review committee who will make grant recommendations. Review committee members will be composed of NGO representatives, community activists, government HIV/AIDS program representatives and people living with HIV/AIDS. FHI's new London office also will liaise with EJAF to help publicize the new RRF as widely as possible in the eight countries.

To provide larger scale support for one low-income community particularly ravaged by HIV/AIDS over the last seven years, EJAF also will support FHI to implement with FHI's Brazilian partner, Associação Saúde da Família (ASF), a special initiative to provide HIV and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention education and services to women and adolescents in São Paulo, Brazil.

Brazil reported the second highest number of AIDS cases in the world in 1999, and since 1992 AIDS has been the leading cause of death among women aged 20 to 30 in its largest city. High rates of sexual activity, lack of adequate sex and HIV/STD prevention education and limited access to condoms also make low-income youth in São Paulo City very vulnerable to HIV infection. By responding to the needs of low-income individuals in southeast São Paulo City who have no safety net, this grant will provide a model for intervention assistance that could be adapted for other urban areas around the world.

Through door-to-door outreach, condom distribution, STD treatment and prenatal care referral services by community health agents, more than 50,000 women and adolescents in underserved communities of São Paulo will receive much-needed HIV/AIDS education and access to health services. At a per capita cost of $2.50, this pilot project will encourage policy makers to focus attention on the needs of the underserved in other areas of São Paulo and across Brazil.