Musician Carlos Santana To Donate All Proceeds From Concert Tour to AIDS in South Africa
Rock guitarist Carlos Santana on Thursday announced that he plans to donate all of the proceeds from his upcoming 23-city concert tour to Artists for a New South Africa's Amandla AIDS Fund, AFP/Yahoo! News reports. Santana, who is believed to be the first artist to donate all concert proceeds to charity, expects to raise more than $3 million in ticket sales and hopes to spread a "spiritual virus" of compassion for HIV-positive people (AFP/Yahoo! News, 6/6). In addition, Santana plans to use the tour as an opportunity to educate his fans about the AIDS pandemic and ANSA through information tables at each concert stop and speeches by ANSA artists in selected cities (ANSA release, 6/6). ANSA will use the money raised on the tour to fund prevention and treatment programs and to care for AIDS orphans in South Africa, Sharon Gelman, executive director of ANSA, said (AFP/Yahoo! News, 6/6). Representatives of the group, including actors Alfre Woodard and Samuel L. Jackson, as well as South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, attended a press conference on Thursday to announce the pledge (Zeidler, Reuters, 6/5). "Apartheid tried to destroy our people and apartheid failed," Tutu said, adding, "If we don't act against HIV/AIDS it may succeed, for it is already decimating our population" (AP/Yahoo! News, 6/6).
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