The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) has been  our "Charity of Choice" since 1990. The Foundation, an international non-profit organization is dedicated to creating a future of hope for children and families around the world.  CWA members have been extremely generous and in the past fifteen years have raised over $5.15 million on behalf of the Foundation.  CWA made this decision after Elizabeth courageously shared her personal story with CWA members at a time when little was known about AIDS and even less about how it affects children.  It was after that moving speech that the CWA voted to make the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation its charity of choice. Since that time, CWA members and Local Unions have been extremely generous to the Foundation through annual giving campaigns and special fundraising initiatives. As a group, CWA has raised over $5 million for the Foundation’s research, training and advocacy programs around the world.

Elizabeth Glaser was infected with HIV through a blood transfusion in 1981. She and  her husband Paul learned that Elizabeth had unknowingly passed the virus onto their daughter, Ariel, through breast milk and subsequently to their son, Jake, in utero. Following Ariel’s death in 1988, Elizabeth joined with close friends, Susie Zeegen and Susan DeLaurentis to create the Foundation that now bears her name.

Thanks to the generosity of CWA, the Foundation that started modestly, just three mothers working around a kitchen table, has grown into a worldwide effort to create a future of hope for children and families around the world. Today, the Foundation is a major player in the global AIDS pandemic, working to prevent new infections while helping children and adults who are already infected. The Foundation has also branched out by helping kids and families suffering from other serious and life-threatening diseases; all the while continuing to fund the research that is so critical to ending this horrible pandemic.

We have come a long way in the battle against HIV/AIDS, but unfortunately, there is still more work to be done.  Currently more than 38 million people are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Unless something is done, that number will more than double by 2010.  

The continued support of CWA will allow the Foundation to:

• Stimulate and support cutting-edge pediatric HIV/AIDS research and train the pediatric leaders of tomorrow;
• Prevent new HIV infections throughout the developing world;
• Ensure families stay healthy and communities stay strong through expanded care and treatment programs for infected children and adults in the hardest hits countries
• Passionately advocate for children’s health with governments, policy makers, and the medical community;
• Accelerate collaborative medical discoveries on behalf of children suffering from other serious and life-threatening pediatric illnesses.

 Although Elizabeth lost her own battle to AIDS, her son, Jake, is now a healthy, young adult. And, thanks to the work of the Foundation and the support of CWA throughout the years, countless other children have been saved as well.  For more information, please visit the Foundation’s Web site at www.pedaids.org.