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Putting a face to HIV/AIDS in Africa
ATCnet
January 23, 2002

ATCnet is a professional group of Africans with a permanent presence in Washington and New York. Our commitment in the broader sense is to be supportive of socioeconomic development in Africa, primarily through entrepreneurial African initiatives. In a narrrower sense we are helping to raise international awareness of the problems and opportunities in Africa, and in this regard we are also addressing the health and HIV-AIDS crisis.

Of course you know the HIV-AIDS statistics and the development indicators for Africa, but most people in the world do not. The fact that by mid-February 2002 more than ONE MILLION Africans will have died of AIDS related illness since September 11 2001 is not well known. The fact that there are probably more than TEN MILLION AIDS orphans in Africa today is not well known. The facts of malnutrition and hunger and shortage of clean water and fuelwood are not well known. And if the facts are known, they are ignored.

The facts, the data, should be a wake up call for everyone in our global village. But the statistics are just too overwhelming for most people to handle. The mainstream US based media services ignore Africa unless there is an easy story to photograph and explain in a 30 second sound byte.

We are therefore looking to give a human face to the problems ..... as well as some positive spin. We are collecting true stories about individuals and groups and organizations that are doing amazing work in Africa in the face of the pandemic and the myriad problems in the African economy. We are looking for stories that show what ordinary people and small organizations all over Africa are doing that is helping. We are looking to learn about individuals, old and young, looking after orphans, doctors and nurses at little clinics, schoolchildren teaching about awareness, women taking control of the behavior change needs, companies being helpful, community initiatives, etc. etc. We are looking for stories about how local people and local government and local NGOs are getting organized to become more effective. We are looking for success ...... not mega success ...... but success one person, one organization at a time. We are looking more for stories about the people doing the work and helping than the crisis of the people who are being served, though both are interesting and important.

We are compiling a collection of stories so that they can be published in book form as soon as possible, maybe as early as March. We will promote the book as a fund raising exercise and we will collaborate on a range of fund raising efforts so that the people and NGOs and others doing these amazing things can be helped much more than they are at the moment. We will also incorporate the information into our Internet database so that we have the foundation for a continuing fund raising effort.

Please help us get lots of stories. The story of your own efforts in the face of the crisis is a starting point. Any help you can give us in getting other stories will be appreciated .... short stories .... long stories ..... images. Also any contacts you might have where we might find other stories.

Please send stories and information to us at hivaidsstories@aol.com. And please pass this message on to your friends and colleagues.

We know there are thousands of great stories to be told ... maybe millions. But we will settle for a couple of hundred good stories to start. Later we will try to get all the stories into our database so that everyone doing good work can be allocated resources to do better than they can without resources.

With very best regards
Thanking you in anticipation

Sincerely

Peter Burgess
VP and CFO ATCnet
New York USA
Tel 212 772 6918 Fax 707 371 7805
website: www.atcnet.org
email: profitinafrica@aol.com / hivaidsstories@aol.com

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