Boston Globe Profiles AFXB Founder Albina du Boisrouvray, Efforts To Help AIDS Orphans

The Boston Globe on Monday profiled Countess Albina du Boisrouvray, founder of the Association Francois-Xavier Bagnoud, and her efforts to help children who have been affected by HIV/AIDS. According to the Globe, du Boisrouvray prefers to get "dirty, upset and even horribly exhausted in her search for practical, low-cost solutions to the chronic problems caused by" HIV/AIDS. Her organization has helped more than 1.4 million people affected by HIV/AIDS worldwide, and it has established housing for abandoned and HIV-positive children in Washington, D.C.; Newark, N.J.; Brazil; Colombia; India; Thailand; and Uganda. AFXB "has won plaudits" for its mission to teach AIDS-affected communities how to be self-reliant "in the face of grinding poverty and ignorance," the Globe reports. Du Boisrouvray provided $20 million of her own money to establish the first global center dedicated exclusively to health and human rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. Experts from the fields of health and economics on Tuesday are scheduled to meet to "map out" the 14-year-old center's future. Du Boisrouvray estimates there will be 100 million AIDS orphans by 2010, adding that renewed debate is needed to address how best to deal with the crisis. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, said, "Albina has been a strong advocate of children orphaned by AIDS since the early days of the pandemic, at a time when few people had the understanding, courage and determination to make their voices heard" (Smith, Boston Globe, 4/9).