Tiffany Donates $2 Million for HIV/AIDS Treatments
October 19, 08
The Tiffany & Co. Foundation donated $2 million to the Botswana-UPenn Partnership to join with the Botswana Ministry of Health in building a facility for HIV/AIDS treatment in Botswana and to support the University of Pennsylvania's health-care initiative through clinical care, education and research.
The facility, planed to be constructed on the grounds of the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, will help people who are affected by the HIV virus as well as improve HIV-related research and medical education.
The new four-story building will house a general pediatric outpatient clinic and an adult HIV clinic, along with educational facilities, research labs, offices and an on-call facility for health-care practitioners.
According to Michael J. Kowalski, chairman and chief executive of Tiffany & Co., the foundation supports the social and economic development of communities in which mining takes place. “There is no better example of this than the Foundation’s support of the Botswana-UPenn Partnership. The toll that HIV/AIDS has taken on the people of Botswana is enormous, and our support of this new treatment center is one of the ways we can share with the people of Botswana the benefits of the country’s enormous natural wealth.”
The Partnership is also involved in helping Botswana establish the curriculum for internship and internal-medicine residency training at its own medical school, which enrolled its first students this fall at the University of Botswana, Tiffany said in a release.
“With this new facility and support from The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, Penn can help support the training of medical and health professionals and continue our clinical work in Botswana,” Harvey Friedman, director of the Botswana-UPenn Partnership, said.
Penn and the University of Botswana have established student-internship programs in nursing, business, archaeology and anthropology, education, engineering, veterinary medicine, social work, labor and law.
The Botswana-UPenn Partnership began in 2001 when Penn physicians were invited to help treat HIV-infected outpatients in Botswana. Later, the physicians began taking part in medical care and education at hospitals.
Established in 2000, The Tiffany & Co. Foundation provides grants to nonprofit organizations working in two main program areas: the environment and the arts.