With over $5,000 in their coffers after less than a semester, College sophomores Leila Sadeghi, Carlos Gomez and Owusu Akoto have jumpstarted the Penn World AIDS Foundation Student Discount Initiative -- a discount card that guarantees cheaper prices at 30 campus stores.
With World AIDS Day approaching tomorrow, more than 500 members of the Penn community have now bought the $10 cards.
"Every penny goes to fighting the disease in developing countries," said Gomez, the World AIDS Federation co-president. "This is a way to bring in people that would otherwise not be interested in the cause."
Penn is the first university to launch an official chapter of the World AIDS Foundation. Organizers say their project has become a collective effort that connects the Penn community and distinguishes it from other schools across the nation.
World AIDS Foundation's "Save Money By Saving Lives" banner flies on Locust Walk every Friday. For those too lazy to go out, the foundation offers doorstep delivery and takes e-mail orders.
"The response from the store owners was very good," said Sadeghi, the foundation's other co-president. "They were enthusiastic from the beginning."
However, getting students to join the global fight against AIDS has not been easy.
"There has definitely been a lot of apathy among the student population," Gomez said. "This is understandable, considering there are a lot of campaigns around."
Many AIDS awareness campaigns will head into overdrive on World AIDS Day tomorrow. But the World AIDS Foundation has no special plans -- it is going to be just another day to "raise money and consciousness."
"You cannot let go and know that so many people suffer even though it's so far from you," said Akoto, a native of Ghana. "It's actually going on."
Living between Nigeria and the Ivory Coast -- countries plagued by AIDS -- has enabled him to witness the devastation.
"We are trying to spread this movement out nationally, across different colleges," Gomez added. "We are trying to gain momentum and maybe get to a point where Spring Fling will become a benefit for the World AIDS Foundation."
Despite inevitable challenges, the campaign will continue.
"Every day, even if we meet 10 apathetic people, there is this one person, who shows a very passionate interest in the cause," Gomez shared. "And that's enough to sustain us."
