Groups We Have Funded Since 1989

We give small grants (normally between $2000 and $5000) to grassroots AIDS organizations that do not normally qualify for mainstream funding. Groups are eligible to receive grants up to three years in a row. Since 1989 we have provided financial assistance to the following organizations:

ACCESS
Provides HIV testing, condom distribution, home meal delivery, transportation, counseling and other kinds of medical and non-medical programs and services in rural Fort Bragg, California.

AIDS Emergency Fund
OrchidMania began as a one-time fundraiser for San Francisco's AIDS Emergency Fund. AEF makes financial grants to people living with AIDS who have a difficult time making ends meet because of health problems. AEF has saved thousands of PWAs from eviction and loss of utility services because of a personal health-related financial crisis.

AIDS Prevention Action Network
Provided needle exchange, condom distribution and other prevention services in rural Northern California.

Bay Area HIV Support Education Services (BAHSES)
Provides HIV/STD Education and Prevention, one-on-one counseling, information and referral services, a "Wellness Program," technical assistance, training and a "Community Collaboration and Partnership" in Alameda, Solano, Sonoma, San Francisco and Santa Clara, California Counties.

Camp Sunburst
Operates free summer camps in the California Sierras for children with AIDS and their families. When children get AIDS they are quickly deprived of their chidhoods. Families are stressed emotionally, economically, and socially. Sunburst Project camps allow kids with HIV 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.

ELLIPSE/Peninsula AIDS Services
Peninsula AIDS Services provides emotional support, long term care, information and referral services, practical support, support groups and education. meals on wheels, and other services in San Mateo County, California.

The Family Link
Provides housing, local transportation and other practical assistance, and counseling for the families of people in the final stages of AIDS in San Francisco. Often, families do not hear that a family member has AIDS (or that they may be gay) until their loved one is near death.

Fraternity for AIDS Cessation in Thailand (F.A.C.T.)
Operates prevention and counseling programs in rural villages and among sex workers in several Thai cities. FACT pioneered safe sex education and condom distribution in Thailand before the government would even admit there was an AIDS problem in Thailand. The country now has a national AIDS prevention program that is being used as a model in other developing countryes. You can thank people like Natee Teerrarojjanapongs, FACT's founder, for making that happen.

Foundación Dar Amor in Colombia

The main objective of Foundación Dar Amor ("Fundamor") is to provide psychological, dental, nutritional and palliative medical care as well as occupational therapy and spiritual assistance to persons with low income who are infected and affected with the HIV virus. The institution provides hospice care to AIDS patients and comprehensive care for HIV infected individuals.

GAEMN
Volunteers of Gente para una Amor Nuevo (People for a New Love) in Santiago, Chile, provide housing, food, clothing, transportation, hospice care, legal and labor assistance, and medical needs to approximately 120 clients per month.

Genard AIDS Foundation
Provides various hospice and in-home care services and counseling in Contra Costa County, California.

Godfather Service Fund
They do something really important. It's something about visiting AIDS patients in hospitals and hospices and providing all kinds of practical things to keep them comfortable. There's something about teddy bears, too. Douglas is pulling his hair out because he just can't remember exactly what they do. It's been six years.

Indradevi Association
Indradevi provides HIV/AIDS education and prevention outreach through workshop-based training courses. This training specifically targets police and military personnel and their families who live and work in neighborhoods with bars, restaurants, night clubs and commercial sex workers. Indradevi serves Kandal Province, which includes eleven districts in the Cambodia.

International Voluntary Services
IVS volunteers provide medical and health education assistance in many developing nations. Our three years of grants to IVS helped to provide AIDS prevention services to female sex workers in Bangkok, Thailand.

Lyon-Martin Womens Health Services
Women get AIDS, too. Lyon-Martin provides a vast array of health services for San Francisco women, and pioneered HIV/AIDS counseling and treatment programs.

Medical Aid for El Salvador
Provides all kinds of medical relief to El Salvador. Our grant was earmarked for AIDS care and prevention work.

Mendocino County AIDS Volunteer Network
Rural Mendocino County has the highest per-capita AIDS infection rate in California. MCAVN provides a wide range of basic non-medical services.

MITRA Indonesia
MITRA started as a hot line service in 1993 and has expanded its activities include anonymous HIV testing, pre- and post-test counseling, counselor training programs, community outreach work, public information and awareness campaigns and advocacy. The group serves Jakarta as well as other areas in Indonesia.

N.E.E.D.
Volunteers provide free syringe exchange, supplies, and disposal, lube and condoms, and educational materials. NEED provides approximately 200,000 syringes to over 1000 people each year in Oakland and Berkeley, California.

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.

Oscar Romero AIDS Project
Provided a wide range of badly needed services (condom distribution, peer counseling, and burial of abandoned AIDS victims), pharmaceuticals and supplies throughout El Salvador. ORAP workers eventually had to end their project after being targeted by Salvadorean death squads.

Seattle Treatment Education Project (STEP)
STEP provides counseling and support services and publishes information for the public and the medical community about treatment options and alternative therapies.

Service Through Touch
People in the final stages of AIDS are often deprived of physical human contact and suffer from long-term confinement to hospital beds. This pioneering organization provided massage services and therapeutic touch to people in the final stages of AIDS, and gave training to massage workers around the United States and Thailand. They were unable to continue operation because it became increasingly difficult to compete for funding.

Starcross Community
This community of Catholic lay people in rural Sonoma County, California cares for HIV infected infants who are abandoned by their mothers.

Support the Children Foundation
SCF 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.