GAIA Vaccine Foundation, which stands for Global Alliance to Immunize against HIV and AIDS, is the organization that put me up while I was in Bamako in January. It was their clinic where Eduardo and Teresa painted the mural.

The founder, Annie DeGroot, is the most driven person I’ve ever met and her organization is among the most legitimate I’ve ever encountered. In addition to building and running the health clinic, GAIA is involved with HIV vaccine research in both Bamako, Mali and Providence, Rhode Island.

The organization is having its most difficult fundraising year ever and they are having a very hard time finding funding for three Brown University students to work in Annie’s Providence lab this year and then travel to Mali this summer. The research and work GAIA is involved with has the opportunity to benefit every person on the planet who is HIV positive and eventually everyone on earth. They need to raise $12,000. Annie is matching every donation dollar for dollar.

If you can donate some cash that would be amazing. I’ve given $50, but I’m sure they wouldn’t turn away donations of $5, $10, or $25. Thanks very much. The link to donate is below and I’ve also pasted Annie’s recent email.

GAIA Donation Page

GAIA Homepage

Here is the excerpt from Annie’s email

This video is an excerpt from an interview done with Ray Patlan. Ray is a prominent Bay Area muralist who grew up in the barrios on the south side of Chicago. He has partnered with Eduardo Pineda on several mural projects.

In this video he talks about how murals can inspire change in impoverished areas where people have never realized a sense of power in any aspect of their life. It’s pretty inspiring stuff and it definitely has a bearing on the work Eduardo and Teresa did at the clinic in Sikoro and overall the work GAIA is doing at the clinic.

I think very often we judge people whose lives we truly can’t fathom. Ray’s comments definitely helped me to understand that there are many people in our own country and around the world who have not had the opportunities I’ve had and don’t feel empowered to make change in their lives and in their communities the way people who have been privileged throughout their lives do. 

I agree with him that a simple artistic change of scenery can help to inspire that change.

Murals and Their Power to Change: Video from A Real Earl Production Documentary from Real Earl Productions on Vimeo.