Goals and progress
Community investment | Our program in action
(PRODUCT) REDTM
Location: Lesotho
Summary: When it launched in 2006, (PRODUCT) REDTM harnessed the passion of consumers and the power of the business world to fight one of the worst health crises in history. Here’s how this bold idea has generated real progress and change.
Three years ago, (PRODUCT) REDTM introduced a new model for creating social change. It called on the power of business and the passion of consumers to address the AIDS crisis in Africa. As a founding partner of (RED), Gap made a multi-year commitment to sell (RED) clothes and contribute 50 percent of the profits to the Global Fund’s efforts to fight AIDS in Africa.
Since its launch, (RED) has raised $130 million for the Global Fund to invest in AIDS programs in four countries: Rwanda, Swaziland, Ghana and Lesotho. All have suffered the devastating impact of the disease.
(RED) funding supports Global Fund-financed grants that have helped put more than 110,000 HIV-positive people on antiretroviral therapy and provided more than 70,000 HIV-positive pregnant women with treatment to prevent transmission to their children. Funding has also paid for more than 3.4 million people to undergo HIV testing and counseling.
The outcomes of these interventions can’t be captured by numbers alone. “I’ve been living with HIV for so many years and yet I am still strong, I can work, I can do everything that normal people can do,” says a 35-year-old mother with HIV in Lesotho. Another woman, who began treatment in 2006, now works at an HIV clinic. “I want to see my son go to pre-school, to school, to university and get married,” she says.
Beyond treatment, (RED) has also raised the profile of the AIDS crisis. Nearly 50 percent of people who bought a (RED) product said they were now more interested in learning about the issue and taking further action to combat the disease.
