Our Contributors
We could never have achieved what we have without the commitment and help from our valued contributors. We would like to thank them and acknowledge a number of them here.
The Africa Education Initiative
In March of 2003 Dr. Chudy Nduaka wrote to us, “We have tried to procure Nevirapine, to no avail and that is why we contacted you.” Thus began a relationship with The African Education Initiative (NEF).
Under Dr. Nduaka’s leadership as Founder and President of the Foundation, he asked us to do what some of our advisors thought was impossible - send nevirapine and HIV rapid tests to Liberia at a time when Charles Taylor, the destructive President who had precipitated the collapse of the country, was still in the process of his ravaging of hospitals. One hospital remained intact – St. Joseph’s Hospital in Monrovia under the leadership of Dr. Lily Sanvee. Not only did the drugs and HIV rapid tests arrive at St. Joseph’s, but Dr. Sanvee established an active program for the prevention of HIV transmission from mothers to children (PMTCT).
Today, Charles Taylor is in The Hague undergoing trial as a war criminal, and PMTCT is thriving. It began with the advocacy of Dr. Nduaka and has expanded into an exemplary PMTCT program through education and training with the financial assistance provided by NEF.
The mission of NEF (www.nef3.org) is to further the advancement of science and engineering in Africa. The foundation hopes to achieve its mission by providing educational materials and essential tools necessary to advance educational institutions including those that seek to improve the health of women and children who are affected by the HIV epidemic. In partnership with Global Strategies, they are accomplishing those goals and calling attention to the import educational and training needs in recourse poor countries.
Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation
In 2002 we were contacted by the Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation and asked to submit a proposal for possible funding. The mission of the foundation is to provide crucial services for men, women, and children living with HIV/AIDS and to raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic through advocacy and education. Bob Frascino, a pediatric postdoctoral fellow when I first met him as a faculty member at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, has founded two medical clinics dedicated to the comprehensive and compassionate care of those living with HIV/AIDS and is founder and president of the Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation.
In 1996, Dr. Robert Frascino and Dr. Steven Natterstad, HIV/AIDS specialist physicians and concert pianists, planted the initial seed for The Foundation when they arranged for an intimate musical soirée in their home to raise funds for a needy local AIDS service organization. Due to the overwhelming success of that initial benefit concert, Frascino and Natterstad founded The Concerted Effort HIV/AIDS benefit concert series through which they have performed numerous classical and popular piano concerts throughout the state of California. To date, these efforts have raised well over $1,250,000 for crucial HIV/AIDS services worldwide, ranging from hospice care in Los Angeles to a clean needle-exchange program in Washington, DC to providing AIDS medications to HIV-positive pregnant women in Africa greatly reducing the chance they will pass the virus on to their unborn children.
It was not surprising that as a pediatrician, Bob was interested in what could be done to prevent HIV infection of children. Since 2002, the Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation has provided us with substantial annual funding to prevent HIV infection of infants born to HIV-infected mothers. Their support has provided assistance for our programs in the Dominican Republic, Liberia, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and many other countries throughout the world. We are appreciative of their annual support and the enthusiasm that they continue to bring through their fund raising piano concerts, http://www.concertedeffort.org/about.htm.
Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project
The Los Altos Rotary first acknowledged the need to advocate and raise funds for HIV in 1989 when the Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project (LARAP) became the first Rotary in the world to bring attention to AIDS.
In June 1989, then Rotary President Dude Angius shared his family's devastating experience when his son contracted AIDS. He asked club members to help him "do something about AIDS." Several months later, Walter Singer, who was often called Mr. Los Altos for his extraordinary volunteer work in the community, announced to fellow Rotarians that he had tested positive for HIV after receiving an HIV-infected blood transfusion during heart surgery. Members of the Los Altos Rotary Club were stunned. AIDS was no longer a remote statistic but a stark reality. These tragic events spurred club members to form LARAP.
Today LARAP is reaching out to improve maternal-child health by preventing HIV transmission from HIV-infected mothers to their infants (PMTCT). Partnering with Global Strategies, they have focused on the country of Liberia.
Liberia is a post-conflict nation, with a population of 3.5 million. It has one of the world’s highest population growth rates, coupled with one of the highest infant mortality rates. The percentage of the population currently living with HIV is 5-6%. In addition to these numbers, there are high levels of stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV. People who are HIV-infected have limited access to treatment, care and support. The opportunity for training of health care workers is great, as there is a severe shortage of trained health care workers throughout the country. There are only 122 doctors with 140,000 pregnant women each year, about 7,000 of which are HIV-infected.
The goal of LARAP is to provide a comprehensive PMTCT program that continues to lead in quality patient care and serve as the flagship to other health care providers in the country. Through advocacy and collaboration, we are working together to develop the very first nationwide PMTCT program - a goal that is achievable in a country of 3.5 million people.
Friedland Foundation
Since 2005 the Friedland Foundation has provided Global Strategies with annual support for our programs in the Dominican Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia. Susan Friedland, MD, President of the foundation and a pediatric psychiatrist practicing in Santa Monica, California, recognizes the importance of nutrition for the treatment of chronic disease to ensure a normal growth and neurologic development. Funds from the Friedland Foundation have provided for nutritional supplementation as well as treatment for HIV infection and its complications. Potent drugs to treat HIV infection, are at last, increasingly available for children. However, the complications of HIV include decreased appetite, chronic intestinal abnormalities and infections which make it difficult to swallow. These factors can result in acute and chronic malnutrition. Even though potent drugs to treat HIV infection can significantly reduce the amount of virus in infected patients, without adequate nutrition, these drugs are poorly absorbed and are often ineffective in controlling virus multiplication.
We are fortunate to have a partner who recognizes the importance of addressing all aspects of infant and child health in the prevention of HIV, and care of HIV-infected children.
Catholic Medical Mission Board
Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) (http://www.cmmb.org/) has provided us with extraordinary donations of antiretroviral drugs to prevent and treat HIV infection through their Healing Help medical shipment program. While the cost of these drugs has decreased greatly as a result of the manufacture of generic drugs, the cost of $250-$300 per patient per year for generic versions still remains a significant obstacle for the many small hospitals and clinics that partner with Global Strategies.
CMMB was founded in 1928 and works collaboratively to provide quality health care programs and services, without discrimination, to people in need around the world. They provided us with thousands of doses of an antiretroviral drug that is one of the most potent drugs to treat HIV when used in combination with other drugs. These drugs are prohibitively expensive in spite of the availability of generic versions. They have also provided us with thousands of doses of nevirapine to prevent HIV transmission from HIV-infected mothers to infants (PMTCT). As a result of these donations, patients and HIV-infected health care workers have experienced dramatic improvements in their health and thousands of infants have been born without HIV infection. A surprise call or email from CMMB is always welcome as it often means a new donation of life-saving drugs.
CMMB health care programs include:
- AIDSRelief: Delivery and administration of antiretroviral therapies to HIV-infected individuals in Africa and the Caribbean
- Born to Live: Voluntary counseling and testing of expectant mothers; administration of the drug nevirapine prior to and following delivery for PMTCT of HIV
- Choose to Care: Hospice care for the dying, as well as housing, food and education for orphans; in five countries across southern Africa.
- Responding to AIDS in China and India: Training of nurses and doctors in China on HIV prevention, care and counseling; education of nurses, doctors and students in India on HIV prevention
- Accion for la Salud Familiar: Community-based program that works to improve family health in the Caribbean and Latin America
- Back to Haiti: Primary healthcare, life skills training, and public health information for children and their parents in Haiti
- Men Taking Action: Program in Zambia to address male attitudes and practices that negatively affect women attending antenatal clinics and accessing PMTCT services
- Healing Help: Medical Shipments
Harold Dick
Harold Dick is a director of BLES Biochemicals, a Canadian pharmaceutical company located in London, Ontario . BLES Biochemicals specializes in the production of pulmonary surfactant, a therapeutic agent used in the treatment of respiratory distress syndrome of the neonate. Harold has been a board member of the Mennonite Central Committee. During his time on the board, he became aware of the tragedy of HIV/AIDS in Africa and began negotiating the supply of ARV therapeutics to a Nigerian clinic. Harold is delighted to assist Global Strategies in its PEP kit project and would like to acknowledge the generous support of Cipla Ltd. of Mumbai , India in these efforts.
Perspective: Branding
Perspective: Branding 
is a brand strategy and design consultancy based in Oakland, CA. The firm was founded in 2003 by Calvin Walters and Simon Thorneycroft and counts among its clients companies in the food and beverage, technology, and services sectors. Their team does brand positioning, research, packaging and identity design for global Fortune 500 firms as well as selected new enterprise start-ups.
Beginning three years ago, Perspective: Branding began a program to annually select a key charity to provide assistance with their branding and communications efforts, including the Hope Walks, Hope Feeds, and Hope Quilts series for Global Strategies. The Hope series brands grew out of a plan to create and name a food product to provide nourishment to children of the epidemic. This created the opportunity to better connect the fund raising and other support programs with a clear brand built around the hope promise. In 2007, the firm created the name and identity system for the British Asian Trust, a cultural diversity program in the UK for HRH Prince Charles.
They can be reached at www.perspectivebranding.com .