In 2001, an estimated 3 million people died of AIDS. In that same year, 2.2 million Africans died of the disease.
A group at Penn is trying to do something about these alarming statistics -- and other schools are taking notice.
Over the past year, the Penn World AIDS Foundation has raised over $7,000 for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which is involved in vaccine research and ensuring that access to treatment is fair, and Doctors Across Borders, a group that provides medical care in developing countries, through its student discount card.
The entire $10 cost of the card, which is now available online through the group's Web site, goes to these world AIDS organizations. Card-carrying students receive discounts to campus restaurants like Salad Works, Philly Diner and some vendors in the Moravian Cafes.
"The primary objective of our organization is to raise money for international HIV/AIDS relief and to simultaneously raise consciousness of the pandemic," said College junior Leila Sadeghi, who co-founded the organization with College junior Carlos Gomez. "I wanted to create some type of outlet for social responsibility, and I just think there's so much we can do at a place like Penn where we can try to make a difference in our own way."
Sadeghi stressed that it is easy to save more than $10 with the card and that the proceeds make a world of difference for the organizations her group supports.
One of the group's leaders, College junior Owusu Akoto, said that he is involved in the organization partly because of his anger at the inequality involved in access to treatment.
And other group members stressed the severity of the problem.
"The organization is an important movement on campus because it will educate about a disease that is killing entire populations," Rita Rodriguez, who has been actively involved in the organization, wrote in an e-mail. "It is important to point out that in this case there is something we can do -- we can fund relief programs, volunteer, work with non-profit organizations, et cetera."
When Gomez's childhood friend Eric Cioe came to visit Penn last year, he was inspired by the idea and decided to start a similar program at New York University.
A pre-med student, Cioe has worked at an AIDS clinic for the past three summers and had also been captivated by the poetry slam AIDS benefits Gomez hosted in his hometown in Rhode Island. He was glad to have a way to share his passion for finding and spreading the cure for AIDS, though his new organization is not officially affiliated with NYU.
"This needs to be a spread of awareness," Cioe said, "and it needs to be a national movement where people are aware that 95 percent of the world does not get the drugs they need."
He also said that the discount card seemed to be a sensible way to get people on board and that colleges across the nation could adopt the project with little difficulty.
"It's very easy to set up," Cioe said. "Wherever there's a college campus, you have vendors that are designed for that campus. You are always going to have people who are going to want to make a difference and you are always going to have vendors who are willing to offer a discount because their main customer base is college students."
Cioe said that his NYU-based organization has raised over $4,000 dollars since they began their project in September and added that people have been very receptive to the group's efforts.
"The amount of support we've had from the community itself has been incredible," he said.
