Combatting AIDS in India: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Backs FXB

NEW YORK -- The François-Xavier Bagnoud Foundation (FXB) will develop community-based programs in rural Rajasthan, India to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, with the support of a $300,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

According to the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, an estimated 3.7 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in India, more than any single country in the world except South Africa. HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are spreading rapidly in Rajasthan, a rural state in northwestern India with a population of 44 million.

The FXB Rajasthan Society will administer the grant. Building on the strong tradition of community health care workers in India, the society will develop a model for AIDS/STD education employing village counselors, migrant workers and peer educators, with the goal of increasing awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and promoting voluntary testing and treatment. The community-based model will then be adapted for use across India as well as in other developing nations.

"We are thrilled to receive help from and to work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation," said FXB President Countess Albina du Boisrouvray. "Stopping the spread of AIDS needs a serious financial commitment as well as a bottom-up, community-based approach. The Foundation understands this, as do our partners in India."

The Association François-Xavier Bagnoud (AFXB) is an international non-governmental organization supported in part by the François-Xavier Bagnoud Foundation. Countess Albina du Boisrouvray created the Foundation in memory of her son, François-Xavier Bagnoud, a helicopter rescue pilot killed in a 1986 crash at the age of 24 in Mali, West Africa. AFXB operates more than two-dozen humanitarian action projects involving children's rights, health and human rights, and pediatric HIV/AIDS in 14 countries. The Foundation and NGO work closely with UNAIDS and other non-government groups to develop scalable and successful poverty intervention programs, focused on children and anchored in a health and human rights framework.  For more information about the François-Xavier Bagnoud Foundation, visit the website.