Keep A Child Alive

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Background

KCA founder and President Leigh Blake was first inspired to start this initiative in 2002 after an encounter at the AIDS Research and Family Care Clinic, a place which she helped fund, in Mombasa, Kenya. A woman named Anne brought her 3-year-old son Brine for medical care, refusing to leave until she received the “drugs that you have in America for your children.” [2] Blake, who had already become involved in the AIDS epidemic using her background in the music and film industry to co-found the Red Hot Organization and Artists Against AIDS Worldwide, told Anne that she would pay for the drugs. In so doing, the idea for Keep A Child Alive was born.

The drugs were about $1200 a year through the New York University Hospital AIDS Research Department, which at that time was overseeing care at the clinic through Dr. Shaffiq Essajee, now KCA's Treatment Grant Director. It was not long before word started to spread and friends of Blake and Essajee offered to make contributions. The first donor was KCA Chair Peter Edge and soon, KCA Global Ambassador Alicia Keys joined the cause, sponsoring children along with Iman and many others. In 2003, Keep A Child Alive was officially founded. The clinic in Kenya that led to Blake's vision became a model for other facilities that KCA now aspires to build throughout Africa and the developing world.[3]

The Mission

Keep a Child Alive brings attention to the already 25 million people that have been killed by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and the millions more that are threatened and orphaned by the disease. By the end of 2006, 39.5 million people were living with HIV or AIDS, including 2.3 million children under the age of 15. Despite AIDS being a preventable and treatable disease, 2.9 million people died from AIDS related causes last year, including 380,000 children under the age of 15—the equivalent of one child dying per minute.[4]

KCA's efforts continue to focus in particular on sub-Saharan Africa as it remains the worst-affected region in the world. With a little more than one-tenth of the world's population living in this area, it is home to almost 64 percent of all people living with HIV—of the overall 24.5 million infected, 2 million are children. While access to ARV therapy has increased more than eight-fold since the end of 2003, only 17 percent of people in need of treatment receive it.[5]

In addition to improving access to ARV therapy, KCA offers a range of support services including nutritional projects, diagnostic testing, training of health care workers, counseling, and funding sites where AIDS orphans can be cared for.

KCA programs are operated through one-time contributions and monthly donations from what the organization calls "love donors" and "life donors."

• Love Donors are individuals who give any amount that fund KCA programs and services.
• Life Donors are individuals who make a commitment of $30 a month, automatically debited from a checking account or credit card. One hundred percent of an individual’s monthly donation to KCA goes directly to buying the essential drugs for a child or family member who otherwise could not afford it. According to KCA's FAQ section, however, it notes that donations are subject to a three percent deduction due to a processing charge required by the credit card companies it works with—VISA, MasterCard, and American Express.

Sites

Keep A Child Alive currently has six main treatment sites: Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, and India. The following is a list of orphanages, clinics, and health centers that KCA directly funds at its official sites and elsewhere:

Treatment sites purchase their supplies locally to support developing economies. In addition, donations are used to support (1) infrastructure and capacity-building, including the purchase of laboratory tests that help determine when to begin antiretroviral treatment and monitor its effectiveness; and (2) training for doctors, nurses, and other health care workers to provide ARV therapy and administer treatment programs. [6]

KCA anticipates future treatment sites in the Caribbean and other countries that have been hit hardest by HIV/AIDS.

Projects

• Build A Clinic
• Build An Orphanage
• KCA College
• KCA Kid Power

Campaigns

Spirit of a Child
The Spirit of a Child campaign was one of KCA's first major endeavors to engage the public through "groundbreaking advertising and media campaigns" that "reinvent the way the public perceives their role in the issue."[7] The campaign, which was created for KCA by TBWA/Chiat Day and photographed by Marc Baptiste was launched on November 3, 2005 at the annual Black Ball fundraiser. "Spirit of a Child" is the brainchild of Patrick O'Neill and Nikki Weinstein and features the children of Agape Orphanage paired with such celebrities as Kanye West, David Byrne, Lorraine Bracco, Lenny Kravitz, Cynthia Nixon, Nas, John Legend and others.

I Am African
The I Am African campaign is perhaps the most visible campaign to date, stirring up controversy with its appropriation of African tribal makeup worn by noted celebrities like Gisele Bündchen, Gwyneth Paltrow, David Bowie, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Sting. The concept was created in the summer of 2006 by model and cosmetics entrepreneur Iman. She was trying to use the idea of Africa as the mother continent to convey that people are not so different after all, that every person has DNA that can be traced back to Africa, thereby making us all related.[8] Photographed by Michael Thompson, the ads initially appeared in a fashion supplement to Condé Nast magazines in September and has since received both positive and negative attention in the press, blogs, and among other social activists.[9]

Become A Drug Dealer
Become A Drug Dealer is another KCA campaign that gives people the opportunity to purchase the drugs necessary to keep a child alive either by buying a T-shirt with the words Drug Dealer printed on it or making the typical monthly donation.

Celebrities and Artists

Many celebrities and recording artists have lent their voices to the KCA campaign. They include:

• Alicia Keys
• Iman
• Bono

I Am African

• David Bowie
• Gisele Bündchen
• Liv Tyler
• Alan Cumming
• Tyson Beckford
• Lucy Liu
• Elizabeth Hurley
• Lenny Kravitz
• Elijah Wood
• Gwyneth Paltrow
• Heidi Klum
• Seal
• Richard Gere
• Sarah Jessica Parker

Spirit of a Child

• Kanye West
• Josh Groban
• Cynthia Nixon
• John Legend
• Goapele
• Russell Simmons
• Angelique Kidjo
• David Byrne
• Kimora Lee Simmons
• Common
• Nas

Public Service Announcements

• 50 Cent
• Rod Stewart
• Dave Matthews
• Ashlee Simpson
• Nelly
• Avril Lavigne
• Toby Keith
• Coldplay
• Simple Plan
• Good Charlotte
• Lil Jon

Corporate Partners

KCA maintains that the reason it is able to give such a large percentage of monthly donations is because it relies on larger contributions from foundations, corporations, and major individual donors to support management and administrative costs. [10] The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Donna Karan, Time Warner Cable, and Maybelline are just a few of KCA's many corporate partners. The full list can be accessed here. [11]

References

• Givhan, Robin. Dressing Up in the Latest Fashionable Cause?. Washington Post 3 November 2006: C2.
• James, Caryn. Megastars Out to Save the World: Those Halos Can Tarnish in an Instant. New York Times 13 November 2006: E3.
• Keep A Child Alive FAQ. Retrieved 17 March 2007.
• UNAIDS (2006). "2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic: Executive Summary" (PDF). Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.