Kaboni’s words were particularly poignant as Malawi transitions to new leadership: “Just as GAIA supported me, I am committed to supporting GAIA. It is my partner. It is Malawi’s partner for a healthier, self-sufficient future. My life has not been easy, but every trial and triumph has carried a lesson with it for me to unfold.”

And Dr. Verghese reminded the crowd of the continuing enormity of the AIDS challenge: “The language of science doesn’t capture this tragic voyage.”

I remain ever impressed and grateful for the enormous support demonstrated by friends of GAIA. The work that we do is only possible because of this generosity. On behalf of the 4000 orphans we will support this year, or the 181 Nursing Scholars, or 150,000 patients that will visit our Mobile Health Clinics: THANK YOU!

Todd Schafer
GAIA President & CEO

The program is a hit and gaining recognition. In a meeting in December in Lilongwe, USAID made two key observations to me about our program that make it stand out from the crowd: 1) our students are passing the national nursing exam (upon graduation) at nearly 100% while other nursing programs are achieving half that; and 2) our graduates are routinely reporting for duty in remote rural clinics (as per our agreement with them) while the graduates of other programs rarely do.
I am not surprised. Our scholars are truly supported, with not just tuition paid, but books, a living allowance, nursing supplies, and academic tutors. In turn, our scholars are both focused on their studies and grateful for the opportunity. And ready to pay back with service.

It’s a compelling story, told 300 different ways. The story of Nellipher, detailed in our brand new Annual Report, sums up the significance of the GAIA support: “It brought peace inside me and improved my academic concentration. I am now equipped with skills and knowledge and I am ready to serve Malawians anywhere I am posted.”

I look forward to meeting many of you at our Spring Garden Party on April 29 in Atherton, California. Together, we will hear from Kaboni Gondwe, a GAIA Scholar now pursuing an advanced degree in the U.S. under a Fulbright Scholarship. Prepare to be inspired!

Best,
Todd Schafer
GAIA President & CEO

Women’s empowerment has a ripple effect – as a woman’s status increases, her health and the health of her family improves, maternal and child mortality rates decrease, her children are more likely to attend primary and high school, the next generation’s prospects improve, and her country’s economic health is strengthened.

I can tell you that in the rural villages of Malawi, GAIA celebrates the empowerment of women every day:

• The GAIA Nursing Scholarship program empowers young women to tend to the health of their communities, and to serve as role models for vulnerable young girls. Currently, 181 young women are studying to be nurses as GAIA Scholars in Malawi, and we have graduated another 126 nurses to date.
• The GAIA Villages program’s success is attributable to the strength of its Community Caregivers, totaling 234 village women in 2011. These women are agents of change in their communities: they care for those who are ill, promote health education, help people get tested for HIV, and identify and protect orphans and other vulnerable groups.
• The Mobile Clinics and Microfinance programs also focus on women. The 828 Women Entrepreneurs in the GAIA Microfinance program are reinvesting in their families and villages, and stabilizing the local economy and increasing women’s social status. Of the more than 120,000 patient visits to The GAIA Elizabeth Taylor Mobile Health Clinics last year, we estimate that over 80% were women and their children.

Thank you for joining me in this essential struggle for the health and well-being of women and girls (and thus the whole community!) in Malawi, in Africa, across the Globe.

Todd Schafer
GAIA CEO

The short summary to our year-end fundraising is this:  GAIA had its best December ever income-wise, thanks to a large contribution from the Elizabeth Taylor HIV/AIDS Foundation, and literally hundreds of individual and family donations.  At this time of organizational transition, this is truly astounding.

Importantly (and responding directly to worry #2 above), contributions were particularly strong among repeat supporters.   In fact, nearly two-thirds of 2010 donors repeated (or increased!) their gift in 2011, the highest percentage in our history.

I see that behind the strong programs are strong and loyal supporters who care deeply for our work and donate for different reasons.  Some are personal – your own loss of a loved one to AIDS, entering college on a scholarship, or watching nurses provide life-saving care.  Others donate because of an introduction to GAIA through their congregations, schools or friends.  All of you give out of the ultimate example of selflessness – to help people whom you will never meet.

I am inspired and heartened and excited. GAIA will be growing its programs in 2012 and that is thanks to you.

Onward to 2012 and beyond!

Todd Schafer
GAIA CEO

The purpose of the trip was twofold: 1) to acquaint me with GAIA’s work on the ground; and 2) to acquaint our Malawi staff, collaborators, beneficiaries, and donors with me. The former was accomplished via site visits to the GAIA Elizabeth Taylor Mobile Health Clinics, GAIA Villages, and Micro-Finance programs, as well as meeting home-based care patients, orphans, and sponsored nursing scholars. The heartbreaking need addressed by our programs was on full display, as were the tangible benefits of our interventions. One vivid example was the overflow crowd at each Mobile Health Clinic I visited. With one site being 30km from the nearest government clinic and even that one treating malaria with aspirin, the need and benefits were obvious.

For the latter purpose, I was joined on the trip with GAIA’s Founding President Bill Rankin. In his new emeritus role, Bill generously traveled halfway around the world to graciously introduce me over and over again. For his efforts, Bill was treated to a heartfelt Thank You party by GAIA Blantyre and Mulanje staff, complete with tributes and a hand-painted depiction of GAIA milestones over the years.

It was a great and productive trip. In closing, I leave you with a powerful image from our visit to the Mobile Health Clinics. During the counseling session to patients receiving HIV test results, I asked Alice Bvumbwe (Program Officer) whether it was painful to deliver the hard news of a positive result. Her answer? “Ten years ago, it was hard; we were telling the patient that they would die. Today, I’m happy to be telling them the steps that they can take to live.” Amen, Alice. Amen.

Sincerely,
Todd Schafer
CEO

Todd Schafer

GAIA CEO

Thirty years ago, a single patient threw a monkey wrench into my plans for a career in academic medicine. He was 31 years old, homosexual, rail-thin, with platinum-dyed close-cropped hair, and a previously unknown immune deficiency. When I reported his case and four others to the Centers for Disease Control I had no idea that the moment represented the beginning of an historic global HIV pandemic that over the next thirty years would ravage millions of lives.

Read the full op-ed by Dr. Michael Gottlieb here.

In July 1982, we arrived at the birthplace of AIDS – Congo – before the disease had a name. Before the year was out, rumors were spreading in the countryside of a lethal sexually-transmitted disease, and by April the cover of Newsweek magazine (our only regular connection to the outside world) screamed “EPIDEMIC: The Mysterious and Deadly Disease Called AIDS may be the Public Health Threat of the Century” and included the “African Genesis” theory tracing AIDS’ roots to equatorial Africa.

Read the full op-ed by Todd Schafer and Michael Hanlon here.

In a village near Lake Malawi a nineteen year old girl lies dying. What can we do? Already we help with food and the Malawi equivalent of Tylenol. But there are no opioids or antiretroviral medications, and her disease is anyway too advanced for the HIV meds to help. The thatch on her mother’s house needs repairing. “Can you help my mother?” Yes, we assure her on the penultimate day of her life. We can, we will, definitely do this.

Read the op-ed by Dr. William Rankin here.

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day is December 1st.  This year we mark the 30th anniversary of the first documented case of AIDS in the US, in June 1981.  I graduated from college that year and was about to embark on my adult life.  HIV/AIDS has been a part of my life from that time onwards.

Although I lived in the Bronx and studied as a graduate student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, I did not become fully aware of the impact of the disease until one of my fellow graduate students died of the illness in 1985.  This came as a complete shock to most of us at the time: he had been young and apparently healthy; his partner was a student in my department.  I felt helpless but continued on with my life, leaving for Princeton University to do post-doctoral work in Molecular Biology.  In 1990 I decided to return to Einstein to become a medical student, completing my residency training at Montefiore Medical Center in 1998.

As an intern in the 1990′s I cared for many young men and women dying of AIDS.  Their deaths were painful and as doctors caring for them we became well versed in the management of many opportunistic infections.  As AIDS entered its 15th year in the US, Crixivan was introduced to combat HIV and the number of terminally ill AIDS patients in the hospital decreased dramatically.  It seemed we had made the important leap of turning AIDS from a death sentence into a chronic disease requiring lifelong therapy.

In 2002 I became aware of the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa.  I heard a sermon given by a man who had started an organization in San Francisco to help prevent the transmission of HIV from pregnant women to their babies at delivery.  I realized that the wonderful advances we had made in the US were being withheld from the poor of Africa and millionsof people were dying needlessly.  I volunteered to travel to Malawi to bear witness to the tragedy and, wherever possible, to contribute my expertise in treating opportunistic infections.  In 2008 I became a trustee for that same organization, Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (GAIA) and my life has been completely transformed by my love for the Malawian people and my drive to assist them in their struggle against poverty, famine and HIV/AIDS.

The United Nations reports that over 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, representing 68% of the global HIV burden.  Women and girls are particularly vulnerable: 76% of all HIV infected women live in this region. Malawi is a small south eastern African country with over 15 million people; a majority live on less than 2 dollars a day.   The HIV prevalence rate is approximately 12% of the adult population and there are almost one million orphans in Malawi many because of AIDS.

I visited Malawi in 2006, one year after antiretrovirals were first introduced there: the government reported that over 95% of patients tolerated their treatment and most were able to return to work and care for their children.  Just as it had happened in the US 10 years earlier, treatment for HIV was effective and millions would be saved, but only if we maintain adequate funding to the programs in place to support HIV treatment, such as PEPFAR started by President Bush.

GAIA works to alleviate the burden of HIV in Malawi by providing access to health care, training nurses in Malawi and caring for orphans.  Please take the time to educate yourself on the worst epidemic the world has ever known.

Visit www.thegaia.org to see how a little bit can go a long way.

Etta Eskridge, M.D.

GAIA Trustee

Marty Arscott and Todd Schafer

I am thrilled to announce that GAIA has hired a new CEO, Todd Schafer.  He will guide GAIA’s day-to-day operations and lead the organization’s vision in working with the poorest of the poor – the orphans and rural villagers, their chiefs, and the community and faith leaders who so bravely face the daily struggles of AIDS and poverty.

Until recently Todd was the Programme Funding Manager with Christian Aid, a large British multi-million dollar organization whose mission is very similar to GAIA’s.  It works with secular and religious groups of all faiths.  Todd managed international government funding for several sectors, including HIV services, for its Central Africa region.  He and his wife and their three children were based in Kigali, Rwanda.

An abbreviated list of Todd’s professional history includes working on the senior management team of Oakland-based Sports4Kids and serving as an Associate Director of the Center for Tropical Research in San Francisco and Policy Analyst at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington DC. Read his bio here.

What most impressed us was Todd’s deep commitment to GAIA’s mission and the people of Africa, and his demonstrated leadership in large and small organizations committed to improving people’s lives.

Bill Rankin, together with the founding trustees and staff, built a strong organization.  During the recession, GAIA maintained year-over-year growth.  Our strong in-country reputation led to a USAID five-year $1.7M grant to increase the number of nursing school scholarships and in-service trainings in Malawi.

During this transition time, Bill will work pro bono for GAIA on a quarter-time basis.  Bill, the trustees, and Malawi and U.S. staff share a rich history with GAIA’s Malawi partners and U.S. donors that ensures smooth continuation of services and stewarding of relationships.

Todd inherits a strong organization with heart and fiscal fitness because of you.  GAIA was built with your tremendous support and dedication to helping people who have no safety net and live on the precipice of poverty and disease.

In the next few weeks and months you will learn more from and about Todd.  He looks forward to learning about and meeting you.

Sincerely,

Martha Arscott
Chair, Board of Trustees

Mighty Lak a Rose

The first time I heard the song Mighty Lak a Rose it was sung over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio network by Paul Robeson. Nina Simone also sang it in the early 1960s at Carnegie Hall. It’s about a baby boy and part of it goes like this:

Sweetest little fellow everybody knows
Don’t know what to call him but he’s mighty lak a rose
Lookin at his mammy eyes so shiny blue
Till it seems like heaven is comin close to you.

When I first met Jessie two years ago this song started to play in my head. Though not a baby and not a boy, Jessie seemed to me mighty lak a rose.

She was bright, and sweet, and respectful and interested in you. She was born with HIV. She suffered from both asthma and TB when we met in an impoverished Malawi village.

That warm day we talked with her under a few shade trees. She was stick-thin and wore a bright white dress, a white hat, and white shoes several sizes too large — all spiffed up to meet the Americans. One of our trustees, Ivan, loomed over her while telling her how much he liked her dress. Not missing a beat Jessie replied, “I like your shirt.”

In this little girl was an irrepressible spirit, and above is a photo that we took then.

Our Malawi staff have been doing everything possible to give her a chance, but anti-retroviral medications are in short supply in Malawi. Even more difficult is finding medications dose-adjusted for children. The challenges have been considerable, but Precious Chalera and Alice Bvumbwe, both GAIA nurses, have tenaciously borne with this little girl.

We thought a corner had been turned this past May when we visited Jessie in a rural mission hospital that we support. Her TB had begun responding to treatment.

But while some of us were in Canada at the International AIDS Conference Jessie died in Likwenu village. This was Sunday August 13. Next day she was buried.

What she had wanted was to go back to school.

Ivan said that news of this was devastating. Ninon said what a blessing it was that we could have met each other. Charlie said what an inspiration she was to everyone. Carole said she had been hoping Jessie was going to make it.

Robeson’s voice is in my head again. Jessie’s death is nearly unbearable, even as I ask myself, “What after all did you expect?” She symbolizes so many other kids, and in a way she represents our whole endeavor, the goodness of it and the hope, but also how hard it is.

Several years ago I copied down some words from the gravestone of Suzy Clemens, Mark Twain’s daughter who died young. They seem beautiful to me, and apt.

We support this orphan home.  Its staff strive to integrate the children into the wider community, so some of the children in this photo are neighborhood kids.  A key goal of the far-sighted staff here is that the orphans will feel that this house is truly their home.  When these kids reach adulthood the house will revert to them.

Kids would like their parents to be with them on a birthday, but for these children this cannot be.   The cake, dancing, and games with friends fill the time and the children adjust well enough.  They are grateful.

Your contributions help these children and many others like them.  We appreciate your help greatly.

William Rankin

When the grandmother works washing clothes for others in order to support all nine children, this baby is left in the care of his 12-year old sister.   A week ago he arrived at an infant home that we support in southern Malawi.  He was malnourished but now receives powdered baby cereal fortified with a peanut-based supplement.  GAIA provides the food.  The woman with him in the photo is his “mother” at the infant home during the day.

In Africa a baby is given a name conveying the hopes of the parents.  This little boy was named Dziwani, “one who knows.”

So many of the Malawi children know things that we wished they would not have to know: poverty, hunger, and abandonment, for starters.  What happens to these kids as they grow older, if they indeed survive, is frequently a mystery.  But it seems safe to say that they do not have an easy time.

No one knows for sure how many orphans are in Malawi, but I can say there are an awful lot, an awful lot.

What could be more worthwhile than giving children like this one a chance in life?

We are so very grateful for your help.

William Rankin