A Year of Blogging about Pediatric AIDS
Posted by
Robert Yule
Washington, D.C.
May 20, 2011
A lot can happen in a year.
A week ago last year, we were just launching the Foundation’s new website and our blog in this space. Since then, you – our readers – have visited the blog almost 75,000 times, to read 154 posts about all aspects of our work.
Jake Glaser at the 2010 Kids for Kids Family Carnival.
(Photo: EGPAF)
We’ve written about our
research, and
advocacy and policy efforts. With our first-person Notes from the Field and individual
Stories of Hope, we’ve also showcased our programs on the ground. We’ve blogged from our signature fundraising events, like the
A Time For Heroes celebrity picnic in Los Angeles and the
Kids For Kids carnival in New York.
And we’ve introduced you to the inspiring people we’ve met along the way through amazing
photographs and
videos.
In our
very first blog post a year ago, we premiered the Foundation’s new video, “The Time to Eliminate Pediatric AIDS Is Now.”
It was a short piece that told a big story – starting with
Elizabeth Glaser and her family’s personal tragedy, her creation of the Foundation, and its evolution into a global leader in the effort to end pediatric AIDS. A year later, we are humbled that this video has
won two Webby Awards (one of them through the help of all of you on the blog) and a Silver Telly Award.
In another of
our first blogs, we highlighted HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, and the urgent need for a vaccine that could be used to protect children from HIV. This week, Dr. Jeff Safrit
gave us an update about why it’s still important to continue this research.
Our most-read blog in the past year came from last July’s International AIDS Conference in Vienna, when a global spotlight was placed on our work and our mission. We wrote about a keynote talk where Bill Gates spoke with Foundation President Chip Lyons on what it will take to eliminate pediatric AIDS worldwide.
Chip Lyons also
wrote a blog about the groundbreaking Call to Action (CTA) initiative, which concluded last June. It was first started by the Foundation in 1999 to prove that we could bring prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) to sub-Saharan Africa, where the need was greatest. Ten years later – with funding from USAID and other donors – the CTA program has put us on the path to end all new HIV infections in children, country by country.
An ABC film crew captures Potso and his pony Rooikat.
(Photo: EGPAF)
One of those in the forefront of the fight is the small country of
Lesotho. We had several popular blogs coming from this “Kingdom in the Sky,” describing our innovative program to reach children and mothers in even the remotest clinics. Both
ABC’s 20/20 and
CNN International’s Inside Africa followed the
horse rider Potso and his pony Rooikat, as they crossed mountains to deliver test results and lifesaving HIV drugs
to those in need.
A blog by Elizabeth Flanagan, a Senior Technical Officer in D.C., was also one of our most read. She wrote about new research recommendations to help HIV-positive women plan their families, while maintaining their health and protecting their children from HIV. She also explained how she gained a new perspective on her work after recently starting her own family.
The blogs from our
Foundation Ambassadors were some of the most moving to appear on this page.
There were updates from Elizabeth Glaser’s son
Jake, who turned twenty-five last year. We blogged about
Jake’s interview with CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, where he talked about his own life and his mom’s legacy.
Suzan Meredith and her daughter, Alee. (Photo: EGPAF)
There were also postings from
Suzan Meredith – a talented
blogger,
author, and mother of three – whose story mirrored that of Elizabeth Glaser’s. She
recounted the devastating day when she discovered that she, her daughter, and her son were all HIV-positive. But she also
wrote about the joys of watching her children grow up healthy.
A testimonial from one of our newest Ambassadors,
Janice McCall, elicited the most comments of all our blogs. Janice wrote about her seemingly normal life as a 17-year-old in Florida, and about what it was like to recently disclose her status after growing up with HIV.
Although it’s been a full year of blogging, we feel like we’ve only just gotten started.
This next year, we want to hear more from you. What were your favorite blogs, photos, or videos? What would you like to see more of on this page? What are your questions about HIV and children, or about our plans to eliminate pediatric AIDS?
Reach out to us by leaving a comment here, on
Facebook, or on
Twitter, and
subscribe to our blog if you haven’t already.
We look forward to hearing from you, and another year of talking about our goal of a generation free of HIV.
And last but not least, we want to thank you for reading!