AFT Exceeds Donation Goal for AIDS Campaign
AIDS Epidemic in Africa Threatens To Destroy Public Education Systems

Washington, D.C.-- In its effort to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, where 30 percent of teachers in many countries are infected with the virus, the American Federation of Teachers has reached its first-year goal ahead of schedule, collecting more than $100,000 from its members and local affiliates for the AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign, a teacher-to-teacher education program.

"This has been a true grass-roots effort," said AFT President Sandra Feldman. "We have reached this goal through the generosity of thousands of AFT members who have made $10 donations as a symbol of their support and solidarity with their African brothers and sisters in need."

Donations from AFT members go directly to provide resources for HIV/AIDS education, teacher materials and supplies. Grants from U.S. government agencies and the AFT are funding additional program expenses and administrative costs. The AFT hopes to raise several million dollars by 2007 in support of the campaign.

"The HIV/AIDS situation in Africa is dire," said Nat LaCour, AFT executive vice president, who has been spearheading the campaign. "We hope to build on this momentum and continue collecting donations and identifying new funding sources so we can reach the hundreds of thousands of African teachers who need accurate information on HIV/AIDS."

The AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign – a multiyear, multicountry project in cooperation with teachers’ unions in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe – provides African teachers with the resources and support they need to develop effective peer-education programs to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, along with counseling and care for those who are ill.

For the last two years, the campaign has worked extensively with the Zimbabwe Teachers Union (ZIMTA). Together, the AFT and ZIMTA have conducted a needs assessment, produced a six-month curriculum and training guide for teachers, funded workshops to train hundreds of teachers on peer-education techniques and helped the teachers’ union to take on the role as an advocate for AIDS prevention in Africa.

Today, more than 5,000 teachers are enrolled in ZIMTA's peer-education program. A second project was launched last year with the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), and work is under way to replicate this program in South Africa, Nigeria and several other African countries.

"We’re confident that HIV/AIDS education, as it grows among teachers, will spread to student and local communities and have a significant impact on fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa," said Francis Muiruri Nganga, secretary general of the KNUT, at a recent visit with teachers from the United Federation of Teachers in New York City.

"The AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign is built on a long tradition of international union collaboration and extensive experience with workplace-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs," LaCour said. "Research has shown that peer-based education programs like this are the most effective way to institute the behavioral changes necessary to stop the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

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The AFT represents more than 1.3 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers, paraprofessionals and other school support employees, higher education faculty, nurses and other healthcare workers, and state and local government employees.