African AIDS Initiative International, Inc.

Executive Director: Elleni Gebreamlak West

Director: Dr. Seyoum Ayehunie

104 Mt. Auburn Street, Floor 4R

Cambridge, MA 02138

Telephone: 617.496.5998

Fax: 617.496.2133

E-mail: ethio@fas.harvard.edu

The African AIDS Initiative International (AAII) is a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting HIV/AIDS awareness in Africa by scaling up nation-wide HIV/AIDS prevention efforts and to improving the lives of persons infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS.  To this end, the AAII will use education, outreach, testing, counseling, and support services to control the spread of the disease and foster behavioral change.  It also seeks to promote the integration of the growing number of AIDS orphans into their communities, and to reduce the stigma attached to the disease.

The founders of the AAII organized the highly effective First International Conference on AIDS in Ethiopia that took place in Addis Ababa in November 1999.  The conference opened public dialogue on the disease, spawned numerous anti-AIDS clubs, and sparked or renewed anti-AIDS initiatives by individuals, organizations, religious groups, and government. The AAII is working to make its Ethiopian operations the hub of an information and programmatic network that can contribute to the fight against HIV/AIDS in a significant manner.  The African AIDS Initiative is a continuation of this work and of the commitment of its founders to battling HIV/AIDS in Africa.