Worldwide it is estimated that 36.7 million people are living with HIV. Once the body is infected with HIV, it can lead to the advanced stage, AIDS, in which the immune system is significantly weakened, leading the body to be vulnerable to other diseases. Of the 36.7 million people worldwide living with HIV, approximately 2.1 million are children under 15 years of age with 400 children becoming newly infected every day. One non-profit organization that works to fight this devastating disease is the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF).
The EGPAF was founded in 1988 by Elizabeth Glaser, a mother of two, who unknowingly infected her children with AIDS after her own contaminated blood transfusion. When she realized that there was little research focused on children affected by AIDS, she set out to create a foundation that would bring awareness and research to this issue. Thus, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation was created with the mission “to bring hope to children with HIV and AIDS.” When Elizabeth unfortunately lost her battle with AIDS in 1994, the organization was renamed in her honor. Today, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation “seeks to end global pediatric HIV/AIDS through prevention and treatment programs, research, and advocacy.”
In order to fulfill their mission, the EGPAF set out three specific goals to help families affected by HIV/AIDS in 19 countries worldwide with over 5,000 sites. Their first goal is to provide prevention and treatment to these families to help combat the virus. Because mother-to-child HIV transmission is the highest risk for childhood infection (90%), EGPAF provides HIV-positive mothers with antiretroviral therapy or ART. When taken during pregnancy, this treatment can help reduce the 90% risk of transmission to less than 5%. Additionally, EGPAF is there every step of the way for these women as they offer prenatal treatment, safe childbirth, as well as postnatal care to ensure that the spread of HIV/AIDS is limited to the lowest possible point. Donations to their programs can go a long way as well. Just $19 can provide HIV testing and counseling and a donation of $100 could buy health workers a bicycle to reach patients in remote areas. $500 could be used to provide a year of treatment for an infected child.
The second goal of the EGPAF is to support and conduct research with a focus to advance effective strategies and technologies that can further prevent, treat, and end HIV/AIDS infection in children and families. The foundation leads a portfolio of 30 different research studies in 14 African countries in order to build a basis of evidence for evaluating current strategies and to find new and innovative ways to intervene in this issue. Moreover, through their research, the EGPAF is able to achieve their third goal which is to influence and advocate for public policy, guidelines, and resources on a regional, national and global level. Not only does the organization use their own research to provide global program improvements, they work with other international committees to inform policy. The EGPAF works with UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF to support international and national plans to end pediatric HIV/AIDS.
For over 30 years, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation has been dedicated to the vision to see a world without pediatric AIDS. They work internationally partnering with accredited organizations in order to achieve their goals. Its programs reach 2.5 million pregnant women and families each year and their efforts have contributed to the 90% decline in new childhood HIV infections in the United States and a 70% decline internationally. I believe that this organization is truly determined to help combat an issue that often goes unnoticed. This organization also happens to be one of the national philanthropies of my sorority because Elizabeth Glaser is one of our sorority’s alumni. Every year, we hold the largest philanthropy event at Binghamton University, Greek God. The past two years we raised more than $38,000 for the EGPAF and I know our donation was going to a worthy cause. I hope this post was able to spread awareness for pediatric aids and if you want to read more about the organization here is the website: http://www.pedaids.org.
AIDS is a truly devastating disease and there unfortunately is no cure. This organization is really amazing and are dedicated to helping and saving as many children as possible. I appreciate you bringing up how very little money goes a long way in this organization despite it being so large. No child deserves to be born with this disease and the fact that the EGPAF administers antiretroviral therapy is amazing because it allows infected mothers to still be able to lead normal lives and raise families without risking the safety of their child and that really stood out to me. thank you so much for sharing. I can' wait to hear more about it during your charity pitch.
ReplyDeleteHey Kat, as promised I am commenting on your post!
ReplyDeleteHIV is an issue which is hard to tackle because it entails much more than just the treatment itself. HIV is disease which is spread by several factors such as the location of your residence and the circumstances you are faced with. Freshman year, I did some research on Human Trafficking in South Africa, where HIV is commonly spread. I came to the conclusion that almost all women who have been trafficked were sold into forced prostitution, where they contracted the disease. Furthermore, people catch HIV by living in townships (slums of South Africa), where they often do not offer the resources to provide for proper hygiene and safe sex. It is issues like these we need to tackle to prevent HIV from spreading. Anything that goes beyond that is a matter of affordability of medication and the progress of science. I enjoyed reading your post, because it relates to some research I did myself in the past.
If you are further interested in HIV in South Africa, below i have attached a link to an organization that tackles issues associated with HIV .
https://www.aids.org.za