At the Elton John AIDS Foundation we believe that AIDS can be beaten. Our goal is to create an AIDS-free future for everybody in this world. With enough support, love, and creativity, we know this is possible.
AIDS is the most devastating disease the modern world has ever known. By the end of the 20th Century, AIDS had annihilated 50 years worth of public health gains. This is an unnecessary tragedy. But the biggest weapon we have to fight this is in all of us – compassion.
We believe that through our network of kind, amazing, creative friends we can overcome the stigma surrounding AIDS. We can help motivate scientists, aid workers, and politicians to end AIDS. With your help, we can pioneer ways to prevent HIV from spreading and help people deal with its effects.
This way, we can keep the dream of an AIDS-free future alive. We can do this.
No More HIV Infections
We fund a huge range of projects – from mobile testing units at football matches to sending SMS text reminders to pregnant women. They all make HIV testing easy, affordable, and reliable. Above all, we endeavour to offer HIV testing to everyone without judgement or discrimination. It’s essential that HIV testing is a routine part of public health. The work we fund is always linked to national systems, and we lobby governments to ensure that structures are in place to maintain and expand these systems.
No More AIDS Deaths
HIV medicines are now available for as little as $300 a year. Enlightened donors, NGOs, and governments have made them available to over 7 million people living with HIV. These medicines not only save lives, they make people living with the virus up to 96 per cent less infectious. It turns out that compassion for those who are sick has also been the best prevention plan. We fund programmes that expand affordable, quality medical treatment to reach those who urgently need help and are still waiting.
No More Discrimination
Stigma is still HIV’s most deadly symptom. We have cheap, easy ways to test for HIV, and ever more effective drugs to treat the HIV virus. We cannot use them if people living with or very vulnerable to HIV are shunned, hidden, or denied their human rights. Compassion cures discrimination. It needs no special training or qualifications, just a belief that all people deserve the chance to protect themselves and others. Without compassion, we cannot create an AIDS-free future.
