HISTORY

NYC Student Initiative for AIDS, Inc.

A History of Battling an Epidemic

NYC Student Initiative for AIDS Inc. (NYC SIA), is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded by several New York University students in June 2002. NYC SIA aims to address the lack of AIDS awareness from the everyday lives of students and raise significant funds to fight the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in the developing world.

Each year, the group chooses an international AIDS relief organization to financially support. NYC SIA began by managing a discount card program. In 2003, NYC SIA donated over $4,500 to Doctors Without Borders to fund the treatment of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. In its 2004 fundraising year, NYC SIA donated more than $9,850 to Africa Directions, a youth center in Zambia’s M’Tendere Township that provides HIV/AIDS education, testing, counseling and peer outreach. NYC SIA supported Action Service Hope for AIDS (ASHA) Foundation located in Bangalore, India in its 2005 fundraising year. ASHA operates a free HIV/AIDS clinic in Bangalore, providing HIV/AIDS testing and counseling, a prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) program, a 24-hour hotline and community outreach. NYC SIA donated close to $5,000 to the organization. Currently, NYC SIA is supporting the Clínica de Enfermedades de Inmunología housed under Hospital José María Cabral y Báez in Santiago, Dominican Republic.

NYC SIA also seeks to mobilize student communities and educate youth on the pandemic. The organization has drawn scholars, filmmakers and activists together for New York University’s World AIDS Week, serving as the sole organizer of the campus-wide event. NYC SIA has encouraged local youth centers, high schools, and colleges to participate in a sidewalk chalking event. The organization encouraged the New York University Health Center to provide free HIV testing to its students.

In late 2004, NYC SIA created and produced a New York City college tour called the Fight Apathy Tour. The Tour visited five campuses, blending performance poetry, music, multimedia and workshops to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and action among youth.  The Tour was immediately successful and in 2005 moved out of New York to the northeast, visiting schools such as Amherst College and Princeton University.

NYC SIA has won wide praise for its work and has been featured on BET and MTV networks and at the 2004 International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. The group has partnered with several organizations including the African Services Committee, UNAIDS, UNDP, Student Global AIDS Campaign, Films from A New South Africa and LIFEbeat.

According to NYU Dean William Long, "NYC Student Initiative for AIDS is a model grassroots movement of young people that has heightened awareness of the current state of AIDS, raised funds for relief and research, and generated a contagious spirit of activism in their fight against AIDS and apathy; and they have done so with creativity and compassion."