One of the organizations on the Stanford campus that has always impressed me is FACE AIDS, a group of very energetic students who have taken it upon themselves to fight AIDS in Africa. Since 2005, this student group has raised almost $2 million to support Partners in Health (PIH), a nonprofit working in Africa but with deep roots in Haiti as well. PIH was among the first groups to provide emergency services on the ground in Haiti to respond to the recent calamity, and FACE AIDS is doing everything it can now to support that effort. The student group has partnered with Sterling Stamos, a Menlo Park, Ca.-based private investment firm, to raise $100,000 for PIH’s Haiti earthquake relief and reconstruction efforts. Sterling Stamos is providing a $50,000 challenge grant that it will match dollar-for-dollar with funds raised by FACE AIDS.
“We find that years of investment in building a strong local partner organization mean that we are again in the position of responding effectively to a natural disaster,” said Paul Farmer, MD, the Harvard physician who founded PIH and now the deputy to former Pres. Bill Clinton, the UN Special Envoy for Haiti. “We are very proud of our team.” He said the organization has been working very closely with the United Nations, the Haitian and U.S. governments, and other nonprofits to meet the immediate needs of Haitians, as well as to work toward the long-term rebuilding of the country.
I can’t think of a worthier effort to support. You can contribute online here.
