Atlanta Journal-Constitution Profiles Not-For-Profit Organization Art AIDS Africa
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today profiles Art AIDS Africa, a not-for-profit organization that purchases traditional art from "craft cooperatives in the poorest sections of Africa," then sells the work online and at craft shows throughout the Atlanta area, with profits going to groups sponsoring HIV/AIDS education and support programs in Africa. Shirley Harris and Annemarie Eades founded the organization after traveling to South Africa to visit Harris' sister, Folami Harris, who was working in West Africa as a director for the Margaret Sanger Center International. During the vacation, "Folami started to share ... how some of the things we take for granted, like soap, just aren't available here. We're not even talking about aspirin, much less being able to treat the opportunistic infections that go along with HIV/AIDS," Eades said. In the first 18 months of business, the organization has raised $20,000 from the sales of pieces ranging in price between $20 and $100. Fifty percent of that money has gone to the construction of an AIDS prevention center in Diepshoots, South Africa. The remaining funds have helped provide medicine and medical supplies at a Johannesburg orphanage and a hospital clinic in Zambia. According to Eades, the group "focuses on small charities that tend to be overlooked by large foundations." She added, "They're small, they literally slip through the cracks, but the services they provide are vital to the survival of many of their communities." In the future, Eades said that the organization would like to give to groups that work with AIDS orphans (Hill, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/21).
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