The NZ AIDS Foundation has received a donation of $7,500 from Roche Productions New Zealand Ltd. and their staff stemming from their involvement World AIDS Day in December. The company marked World AIDS Day (1 December) by encouraging staff to go on a sponsored walk, with whatever sponsorship the staff achieved matched by Roche The beneficiary of the international Roche staff walk was a project supporting children in Malawi but the New Zealand staff decided that the HIV/AIDS situation in this country needed help too. Staff in Auckland and Christchurch went on the walk, resulting in the $7500 donation to the NZAF plus nearly $4,000 for the Malawi project. Worldwide, the Roche initiative raised $1.1 million for Malawi. NZAF executive Director Rachael Le Mesurier says the Foundation is grateful for Roche and its staff recognising that HIV/AIDS is also an important issue here. “Every one of us needs to be aware of both the global and the local realities of HIV and AIDS. NZ Roche staff have shown that they have made that connection and their initiative symbolises our ability to care for those close at home as well as those far afield,” she says. While some NZAF work is funded by the Ministry of Health, it relies on non-government donations and grants to help respond to new need, as new cases of HIV continue to increase. "This money also helps us to advocate on issues of concern to, and to provide assistance for, people who are HIV positive... for example, to help with the costs in attending our upcoming Pan Pacific HIV and AIDS conference, in Auckland in October this year,” says Le Mesurier. Roche is a major player in HIV/AIDS treatment including developing protease inhibitors and being part of an international programme to get reduced-price HIV medications into third world countries.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Monday, 24th January 2005 - 12:00pm