PRNewswire - November 20, 2003

Four Georgia HIV/AIDS organizations received initial grants of nearly $153,000 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 34% of the population in Georgia, they made up 77% of new AIDS cases reported between July of 2001 and June of 2002. The 10th largest state in the nation, Georgia has the 5th highest AIDS case rate at 20.8 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.

Grantee Sandra S. McDonald embarked early on HIV/AIDS prevention work by distributing education materials out of the trunk of her car in Atlanta about 17 years ago.

"The South has had its share of HIV/AIDS, but little resources," said McDonald, the founder of Outreach Inc. in Atlanta, which was awarded $50,000 to support the organization's popular HIP HOPPER HIP peer education program for the teen children of clients who are HIV-positive and drug addicted.

Said McDonald: "For community-based prevention organizations, the Initiative is one of the most creative and ingenious programs the Pfizer Foundation could have developed."

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

* AIDS Resource Council ($20,000 - Rome, GA): The Council is using its Friday Night Out program to help African-American women in rural housing developments learn prevention methods.

* Southeast Georgia Communities Project ($45,832 - Lyons, GA): Latino Youth who are migrant and seasonal farm workers will receive expanded services and education through the Migrantes Aprendiendo Prevencion Sobre SIDA program. The new Teen Advocating Prevention Skills program will also offer participants the opportunity to write and produce PSAs, novellas, and plays.

* Union Mission ($36,420 - Savannah, GA): Keeping at Risk Individuals Healthy (KARIH), an outreach program, uses theater to engage youth who are teen peer role models. Teens serve as actors portraying ways to resolve dilemmas with communication and decision-making skills. Two plays will be performed.

* Outreach, Inc. ($50,000 - Atlanta, GA): Ten teens of adult clients with HIV will be identified and trained as peer counselors through the HIP HOPPER HIP (HIV Peer Prevention Education and Risk Reduction Program) project. The project focuses on outreach through "rap sessions" for youth ages 13-17 in inner city Atlanta where the rates of HIV/AIDS, STDs, and TB are the highest.

"We are facing an HIV/AIDS epidemic in the South, and underserved communities in Georgia already struggling with health problems are being hard hit by the disease," said Congressman John Lewis (D-5th District). "By supporting prevention organizations that serve women, and racially and ethnically diverse groups in rural and urban communities we increase our chances of slowing the spread of the disease."

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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