Our Mission

The Academic Alliance Foundation (AAF) overcomes the burden of infectious diseases by building healthcare capacity and strengthening academic medical institutions in Africa.

“There is a new sense of optimism” in Africa, as Bill Gates noted at the most recent International AIDS Conference. Hope has replaced despair as efforts to combat HIV/AIDS across the continent are meeting with success. Still, the numbers remain daunting, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the pandemic’s epicenter, where a demographic destruction is unfolding on a scale unprecedented in human history.

• Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly two-thirds – or 24.5 million – of the people living with HIV/AIDS and accounted for 2 million of AIDS-related deaths in 2005.
• Infants and children bear an inordinate share of the suffering. Approximately nine of ten HIV-infected children live in sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 12 million of the region’s children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

We know how to prevent HIV/AIDS. We know how to treat the disease and care for those infected with the virus. We know how to halt the transmission of the virus from mother to child. There is no need for additional lives to be lost to HIV/AIDS or to other infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis and malaria, which continue to devastate the developing countries of the world.

By investing in healthcare systems now, AAF is addressing today’s need to fight HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, and preparing a new generation of African healthcare leaders for tomorrow’s challenges.Our programs build healthcare capacity to promote consistent quality of care, and strengthen academic medical institutions to train healthcare professionals and nurture young African researchers. It is through these remarkable Africans that AAF believes we can achieve long-term success in the fight against infectious disease.