PRNewswire - November 20, 2003

Two South Carolina HIV/AIDS organizations received initial grants of nearly $95,000 from the Pfizer Foundation Southern HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative. The grants are part of the $3 million, three-year Initiative to fund highly targeted prevention programs to underserved populations in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

Grants awarded during this funding cycle totaled more than $1 million with ongoing technical assistance from the Foundation.

Although African Americans account for just 26% of the population in South Carolina, they made up 81% of new AIDS cases reported between July of 2001 and June of 2002. The 25th largest state in the nation, South Carolina has the eighth highest AIDS case rate at 17.9 cases per 100,000 people.

"By partnering with organizations in small towns and big cities across the South, we hope to help slow the increasing incidence of HIV/AIDS," said Caroline Roan, secretary of the Pfizer Foundation. "We know that tackling HIV/AIDS -- the most catastrophic health challenge of our time -- demands that we work and partner together as governments and communities, and as corporations and foundations," Roan added.

Finding approaches to bringing HIV/AIDS prevention information and education to at-risk African-American and Latino women in rural South Carolina has been one of our greatest challenges," said Carmen Julious, executive director of the Palmetto AIDS Life Support Services in Columbia, SC. "We are going into communities and trying to gain access in a way that will help us lay the ground work for discussion and training on HIV/AIDS that has rarely been done in rural areas," added Julious.

The Foundation's new grantees in South Carolina are operating an array of creative programs taking prevention and education messages to the community. Grants were awarded to the following organizations:

* Hope for the Pee Dee ($44,000 - Florence): The grant will support new prevention, outreach and testing programs, eight community prevention and awareness presentations, and implementation of the It Stops With Me Campaign, an intensive three-phase secondary prevention program.

* Palmetto AIDS Life Support Services ($49,990 - Columbia): The grant will support and expand the Women's Health Council Project, which addresses drug use and HIV/AIDS. The project targets African-American and Latino women between the ages of 15-44 in housing communities, shelters, health centers and other rural community locations.

"Community-based prevention and education programs that target underserved and high-risk communities are our best line of defense in the war on HIV/AIDS.

And while African Americans make up less than 30% of South Carolina's population, they account for over 70% of all those living with AIDS statewide," said Congressman James E. Clyburn (D-6th District). "In assisting organizations that focus on those most at risk for the disease, this Initiative has shown how innovative approaches by the public and private sector can help those most in need."

Since 2001, 46 percent of the estimated new HIV/AIDS cases in the U.S. have been reported in the South. While the southern region accounts for little more than one-third of the total population, it is where 40 percent of the people estimated to be living with the AIDS call home.

The Pfizer Foundation, established by Pfizer Inc, has worked for a half a century, in partnership with community-based organizations to ensure access to quality healthcare for those individuals most in need.

SOURCE The Pfizer Foundation

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