AIDS Healthcare Foundation
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 152,000 individuals in 26 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia-Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. The organization’s mission is “to provide cutting-edge medicine and advocacy, regardless of ability to pay."
History AHF began in 1987 as the AIDS Hospice Foundation. With patients dying on the streets of Los Angeles, a small group of activists committed themselves to “fight for the living, and care for the dying.” The group sponsored legislation that made it possible to open the first licensed HIV/AIDS facility for the terminally ill in California, named after AIDS Hospice Foundation Co-founder Chris Brownlie.
In 1990, AIDS Hospice Foundation officially changed its name to AIDS Healthcare Foundation in response to a growing need for ongoing medical care for its patients. In order to fund its efforts, AHF opened its first Out of the Closet Thrift Store in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles, California later that year. Revenue from the sales of donated goods fund patient care. Out of the Closet went on to be the largest HIV/AIDS retail fundraising vehicle in the U.S. with 21 stores in Northern and Southern California and in Florida. Ninety-six cents of every dollar earned through the stores goes toward HIV/AIDS prevention and care in the U.S. and globally. More information is available at www.outofthecloset.org.
The first AHF Healthcare Center opened in Hollywood at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in 1991. The advent of the AIDS drug “cocktail” in 1996 ushered in a treatment revolution. AHF began supplying protease inhibitors to patients without guarantees of reimbursements and at great financial risk. In 1999, the state of Florida signed the largest disease management contract with AHF for the care of thousands of Florida Medicaid recipients living with AIDS, creating Positive Healthcare. AHF launched its first AHF Pharmacy in 2000 at its AHF Healthcare Center in downtown Los Angeles. That same year, the organization opened its first clinic named after and in partnership with basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Jr – who was diagnosed with HIV in 1991.
After the 2000 International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, AHF joined with local activists to form partnerships to test and treat South African residents. AIDS Healthcare Foundation opened its first clinic outside the U.S. in the poor community of Umlazi in Durban, South Africa in 2002. Called the Ithembalabantu “People’s Hope” Clinic, it became the model upon which all other AHF global healthcare centers have been based. In 2007, AHF commemorated its 20th year serving people living with HIV/AIDS.
