Mission Statement

Our purpose is to mobilize Rotarians and provide global leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

We believe in breaking the silence on AIDS, thereby reducing the stigma and making AIDS a mainstream issue. We will create an organizational structure that will encourage Rotarians around the world to work on HIV/AIDS education and prevention, with a particular focus on mobilizing and assisting community support efforts for orphans and vulnerable children.

RFFA was approved by the Rotary International Board in October 2003. RFFA operates in accordance with Rotary International policy but is not an agency of, or controlled by Rotary International.

How RFFA Began

Submitted by sysop on Fri, 2005-07-29 07:30.

Marion Bunch feeding orphans in Nairobi. 

The Rotarians for Fighting AIDS (formerly Rotarian Fellowship For Fighting AIDS) was initiated by Marion Bunch, now the current Chair of RFFA and formerly RI’s Health Concerns Advisor on AIDS. Marion has developed a coalition of powerful organizations to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. …..Because both Rotary International Past Presidents Bhichai Rattakul and Jonathan Majiyagbe expressed strong interest in helping the orphans and vulnerable children of Africa, Marion put together a Rotary AIDS project plan (which became the ANCHOR program – see RFFA News) at the request of RI Past President Bhichai in early 2003. Marion presented the plan at RI Past President Bhichai’s Presidential Conference on Peace & Development in Nairobi, Kenya and again, later, for RI Past President Jonathan’s Presidential Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa in August 2003. PARTNERSHIPS

The plan to help the orphans was based on “partnerships”, with each partner bringing a different expertise to the project. But before we could partner with anyone, we needed a Rotary “entity” that could actually partner with other organizations – one that incorporated like-minded Rotarians from multiple countries and continents that wanted to combat AIDS. This resulted in the creaton of the Rotarians For Fighting AIDS, Inc., approved by the Rotary Internatonal Board in October 2003.

The primary partner in battling AIDS had to be an AIDS expert organization, one with a Best Practice model that was sustainable, and one that could scale up and replicate their model in multiple African countries. HOPE worldwide/Africa run by Dr. Mark Ottenweller was the answer. Together Mark and Marion formed a coalition with HOPE worlwide as the primary AIDS expert partner; RFFA as the Rotary group that could mobilize the communities into action and volunteer their services to help train the caregivers in life skills and income generation skills; and Emory University’s School of Nursing & Task Force who became the “monitoring and evaluation” expert in the group. Thus, the African Network For Children Orphaned and At Risk (ANCHOR) was formed. ANCHOR applied to the U.S. Government (USAID) for funds to help 146,000 orphans and vulnerable children in six African countries and to train 48,000 caregivers in these countries. They received $8.1 million US in the Spring of 2005. Coca Cola/Africa provided the ANCHOR partnership group with $50,000 seed funding to help with the planning and implementatoin process. A RFFA/ANCHOR organizational structure has been created in the six African countries to implement the plan, making African Rotarians responsible for assisting HOPE worldwide staff in mobilizing the communites into action to help the orphans and vulnerable.

In response to requests from RFFA members in America and other developed nations who also want to help the orphans in Afirca, RFFA announced the creation of Orphan Rescue. Rotarians or non-Rotarians can donate the sum of $450/anually to provide one child for one year’s nutritional support and all education costs. Donations go through RFFA and are wired monthly to a special RFFA/HOPE worldwide account in Johannesburg, South Africa. HOPE’s staff will distribute the donations through their community workers who can easily identify the children in need.