FACE AIDS - History

History

In 2005, three Stanford University students working in a Zambian refugee camp met Mama Katele, a grandmother living with AIDS. Through Mama Katele, the students came to realize the impact of AIDS in her community and how little their generation knew about the human cost of the pandemic. Determined to help Mama Katele and to engage their peers in a fight for global health, they developed a program through which people affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa could gain income making beaded AIDS awareness pins. The pins, in turn, would provide the basis of a movement to inspire students to stand up against the pandemic and raise money to support those working in Africa to overcome the ravages of disease and poverty.

FACE AIDS began as a series of week-long campaigns devoted to selling beaded pins and raising awareness about the AIDS epidemic. The funds raised from these pins went to support the pin-makers in the Zambian support group. As it became clear that a more sustained effort was needed to sell pins and build a student movement, FACE AIDS transitioned to the chapter model, recruiting heavily from 2006 onward.