CAP AIDS was created to support the dedicated people working on the front lines of the battle against HIV/AIDS by providing them with the resources they needed to resist, survive and overcome the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
We realized that silence and inaction were unacceptable and that the best and most effective response would be to support the efforts of grassroots community based organizations in Africa.
Our HistoryCAP AIDS' was born on December 1,
2002, when a small group of concerned people decided that the HIV/AIDS
crisis in Africa called for more action on the part of Canadians.
We recognized the HIV/AIDS pandemic as a health emergency, which claims
the lives of some 42,000 Africans every week of every year. We saw that
the pandemic was taking a terrible toll on everyday life in Africa:
millions of children have lost their parents, schools have lost their
teachers, health clinics their nurses, farms their workers. And yet,
despite the sadness and despair brought on by so much sickness and
death, we saw hope.
We saw that grassroots, community based organizations were making a
difference in Africa. We saw how with next to no resources people were
able to develop educational programs to educate African youth on the
dangers of HIV/AIDS. We saw how simple things can often make a big
difference. We saw that providing gloves and surgical knives to
midwives could reduce the rate of mother to child transmission, that
bicycles can dramatically increase the ability of an HIV/AIDS educator
to reach rural villages, that small loans can have a huge effect when
they support the creation of a small business that provides an ongoing
source of income and a means to afford needed medications. These
projects were being implemented, but with limited resources we saw that
their impact was limited.
We realized that silence and inaction were unacceptable and that the
best and most effective response would be to support the efforts of
grassroots community based organizations in Africa. That is why CAP
AIDS was created. It was created to support the dedicated people
working on the front lines of the battle against HIV/AIDS by providing
them with the resources they needed to resist, survive and overcome the
HIV/AIDS pandemic.
CAP AIDS has been busy since that initial meeting on World AIDS Day 2002. We incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in 2003 and were recognized as a registered Canadian charity in late 2004. A University of Toronto Chapter was established in 2003 and a British Columbia Chapter was established in 2005. In the meantime, CAP AIDS has funded projects in Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda.
