Financial Support for Grassroots AIDS Work 2001

OrchidMania provides financial support to AIDS programs which receive little or no taxpayer support and must rely primarily on individual donations. Since so many of our plant donations come from outside the United States some of our financial support goes to programs in Asia and Latin America. Groups are eligible to receive OrchidMania funding for a maximum of three years.

In 2001 the following groups received financial support from OrchidMania's "World's Largest Orchid Garage Sale."

Nguyen Friendship Society
The Nguyen Friendship Society (NFS) is the first AIDS/HIV prevention program in Viet Nam for gay and bisexual men. This group of about 50 volunteers does street outreach, condom distribution, needle exchange, and peer counseling in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). This effort is still considered underground and controversial. OrchidMania was the first to recognize and support this group's efforts.

Camp Sunburst
Camp Sunburst operates free summer camps in the California Sierra Nevada for children with AIDS and their families. When children get AIDS they are quickly deprived of their childhood. Families are stressed emotionally, economically, and socially. Sunburst Project camps allow kids with HIV to take a vacation from AIDS for a week. Recreational opportunities and volunteer medical staff take pressure off kids and families, and allow them to regroup and enjoy each other -- sometimes for the last time.

Support the Children Foundation
Support the Children Foundation has set up four homes for orphaned or abandoned children infected with HIV. The group provides love and care to these unfortunate children in a family type setting. They also teach HIV infected parents how to care for their infected children in order to avoid the possibility that they will be abandoned. The organization serves Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.