These are challenging times in America—but that won’t stop us from caring about the AIDS pandemic that is decimating Africa. We can’t let it stop us, or we lose what is greatest in the American spirit: our generosity.
In Zimbabwe alone, more than 15 people die from AIDS every hour—80,000 deaths per year. In all, 14 million Africans have died, and 25 million are HIV-positive. There are 1,000,000 orphans in Zimbabwe. Africa AIDS Response is a program of the Portland-Mutare Sister City Association, developed to support urgent and ongoing grassroots AIDS prevention and care efforts in Portland’s Sister City of Mutare, Zimbabwe. Together, using the power of local action and your generosity we raise money to directly support local AIDS agencies, projects and health clinics.
Where to begin? The effort to fight this enormous problem has to start somewhere—why not in one of Portland’s sister cities?
Africa AIDS Response is a program of the Portland-Mutare Sister City Association developed to support urgent and ongoing grassroots AIDS efforts in Portland's Sister City of Mutare, Zimbabwe.
Together, using the power of local action and your generosity we will:
- raise money to directly support grassroots AIDS agencies, projects and health clinics;
- raise awareness of the epidemic and the efforts of the African people to slow the disease and manage its consequences;
- provide citizens of Portland with an effective avenue for personal involvement;
- foster an exchange between HIV/AIDS workers in Zimbabwe and Portland; and
- serve as a model for citizen/city involvement to address the African epidemic on a grassroots level