U.S. HIV Groups Reach Beyond Borders

Some U.S. AIDS groups have begun extending their services overseas. Their efforts include:

• The San Francisco AIDS Foundation diverted $1 million of its funds to help establish Pangaea, an affiliate in Uganda with its own board and Pat Christen, SFAF executive director, as president. Pfizer and its philanthropic wing committed $11 million over three years to Pangaea's outreach in Kampala, where it is working with Makerere University to build the 30,000-square foot Infectious Diseases Institute. Christen said some people at the foundation were wary about telling donors their money was being spent overseas. "But we've always been very honest with our donors about what we do with our resources," she said.

• The Boston-based AIDS Action Committee, in collaboration with the Harvard AIDS Institute, has been providing financial and technical assistance for two years to the Coping Center for People with AIDS, an organization in Botswana where HIV-positive women "get support and find the company of others in the same situation," said AAC Executive Director Michael Thomas Duffy. The program cost about $100,000 over the last two years and was financed with grants from the State Department and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Duffy said the group hopes to expand the outreach to countries like Cuba and Haiti, eventually raising money from private donors.

• At groups like AIDS Project Los Angeles, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, and the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, international work is focused on shaping U.S. policies "that are favorable toward the international AIDS effort," said APLA Executive Director Craig E. Thompson. "We're working with Congress to increase federal appropriations beyond what the president asked for, as much as possible of the $10 billion needed globally."
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• In New York, the Gay Men's Health Crisis has begun providing technical assistance to AIDS groups abroad. Last November, GMHC helped organize a meeting on developing cheaper, simpler blood monitoring techniques for HIV patients in poor countries. During the UN General Assembly on AIDS last year, GMHC co-sponsored a forum on antiretroviral therapy in the developing world.

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