Rotary combats AIDS in Liberia

Written by Marlene Cowan - Special to the Town Crier

Photo Art Ammann/Global Strategies For Hiv Prevention The Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project raises funds and awareness to reduce transmission of HIV in Liberia. Marlene Cowan is past president of the Rotary Club of Los Altos. Following is her account of the club’s recent activities focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention. The Rotary Club of Los Altos commemorated World AIDS Day Dec. 1 by hosting three speakers who discussed their continuing efforts to contain the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Rich Casey, president of the Rotary AIDS Project and chairman of the club’s annual World AIDS Day program, joined Gretchen Miller Selfridge of Global Strategies for HIV Prevention and Stanford University student Austin Keeley to highlight their concerted activities to raise awareness and funds with the goal of totally eliminating HIV transmission to newborn babies in the West African country of Liberia by 2015. Casey reviewed more than two decades of local Rotarians’ involvement with HIV/AIDS issues. Past President Dude Angius, former principal of Los Altos High School, launched the club’s first AIDS-related project in 1989 when his son Steve contracted AIDS and died. “The Los Altos Story,” a Peabody Award-winning documentary produced by the local club that chronicles the impact of AIDS on the Rotary Club and the Los Altos community, has been screened by Rotary Clubs throughout the world. The story of the local tragedy has been used to change attitudes and perceptions about AIDS and HIV worldwide. Local Rotarians currently focus their activities on Liberia, because with its relatively small population of 3.5 million, and the high rates of HIV infection in infants throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the incidence of the virus in newborns could be reduced to nearly zero within five years.