IN FOCUS: KEEP A CHILD ALVE

One organization that is making HUGE strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS, specifically in Africa, is Keep a Child Alive (KCA), a charity founded by Leigh Blake and nine-time Grammy winner Alicia Keys. According to the website, www.keepachildalive.org,

Keep a Child Alive is dedicated to providing life-saving anti-retroviral treatment, care and support services to children and their families with HIV/AIDS in Africa and the developing world by directly engaging the global public in the fight against AIDS.

Leigh Blake

Leigh Blake officially founded KCA in 2003. However, her involvement in the fight against AIDS began long before then. In the late 80s, as her career in the arts began to take off, Blake found she was losing her creative peers to AIDS. In 1989, she helped to found the Red Hot Organization, the seminal music industry initiative that raised funds for HIV/AIDS research and education by bringing together top artists such as David Byrne, Madonna, Annie Lennox, and U2. It was actually the proceeds from a Red Hot fundraiser that helped to lay the groundwork for KCA. For further details, read the following excerpt from the KCA website:

The seed of Keep a Child Alive was sown in Kenya in 2002. Royalties from Leigh Blake's previous fundraiser, Red Hot & Blue, built the AIDS Research and Family Care Clinic in Mombasa. A woman named Anne walked in to the clinic, desperate to obtain the anti-retroviral drugs her three-year-old son Brine needed to survive. At the time the medication's high cost was an impossible dream for most Africans to afford, and Leigh was so moved by this woman and her courage that she decided to pay for them.

Word of the children's desperate need for medication spread among Leigh's friends and colleagues, and soon they were offering to do the same. KCA Director Peter Edge became its first donor, and soon Alicia Keys passion for the issue drove her to become its first Global Ambassador.

What started as a very personal incident between two mothers has become a tremendous initiative for change. With around 3,000 children and family members on ARV treatment, over 45,000 people under our care, three orphanages receiving funding, and major clinic sites in expansion, Keep a Child Alive is making a direct impact in the lives of so many who need help.

Keep A Child Alive is only one of several organizations taking steps forward in the fight against AIDS. People of all races, backgrounds, and social positions have joined Leigh and Alicia to pool their resources and funds to provide life-saving medication for those affected in Africa with HIV/AIDS. It's important to keep these organizations in focus so that individuals will see that the fight, OUR fight, continues well past World AIDS Day on December 1.

For further information on KCA, check out www.keepachildalive.org