Secure The Future

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Our Commitment

In 1999, as the HIV/AIDS pandemic – one of humankind’s greatest crises – was growing in scope and impact, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company saw a clear responsibility to act philanthropically to fight the disease. The company’s mission is to extend and enhance human life, and as a global leader in HIV/AIDS medicines, it was well positioned to address the crisis.

As the company was considering approaches, the Secretary General of the U.N., Kofi Annan, asked Bristol-Myers Squibb to take a leadership role in helping to fight the pandemic in Africa in an unprecedented manner.

Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation – acting with significant resources and partners in Africa and the global AIDS and healthcare communities – created SECURE THE FUTURE. This initiative was, and still is, the largest corporate commitment of its kind to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Among the organizations that initially participated with the company in developing the initiative are: UNAIDS, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tex., Harvard AIDS Institute, Boston, Mass., and IAPAC, the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care.

Initially, Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation committed $100 million over a five-year period to provide care and support for women and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. The company then set out to deliver on its SECURE THE FUTURE Pledge. Since its inception, the program has grown in size and scope to support some 200 individual programs through a commitment now totaling $150 million. The initiative now is reaching women, children, their families and communities in 10 nations (PDF:626k): South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda.

The goal is to build a range of innovative, cost-effective model programs where medical, educational and community social-support needs are great and the resources limited.

Knowledge learned through SECURE THE FUTURE programs – about what it takes to combat the disease and its effects in developing countries where resources are limited – is now being shared widely through publications and conferences.