LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
- British fashion designer and former pop star Victoria Beckham is
giving away 600 pieces of clothing, including several evening
dresses, to raise money and awareness for mothers living with HIV in
sub-Saharan Africa.
Beckham's iconic, white Dolce and Gabbana dress worn for the
2003 MTV Video Music Awards is just one of the items to go under
the hammer in aid of mothers2mothers (m2m), a charity that works
to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to babies in
nine countries including South Africa, Swaziland and Kenya.
Other pieces are from Beckham's days with the Spice Girls pop
group, fashion shows, parties and red carpet appearances with
husband and former England soccer captain David Beckham.
The money raised from the auction of Beckham's evening gowns,
hats, shoes, bags, jewellery and costume pieces will be
"transformational" for the organization that trains and employs
mothers living with HIV to mentor other HIV-positive mothers in
their community, m2m founder, Mitch Besser, said.
The women work alongside doctors and nurses in understaffed
health centers as members of the healthcare team.
"We've reached 1.2 million mothers since we started, but with
more resources, we can reach more mothers. With more reach we
prevent more infections and we keep more mothers alive to take
care of their kids," said Besser, an obstetrician and
gynaecologist by training.
"The funding is absolutely transformational for an organization
like ours," he told Thomson Reuters Foundation.
With an annual budget of around $20 million, m2m receives up to
two thirds of its funding from the U.S. President's Emergency
Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) - a program to combat AIDS started
by former U.S. President George W. Bush.
THE OUTNET.COM, the online fashion outlet which will host the
private online sale from Aug. 20-25, said Beckham chose to
donate proceeds to m2m after visiting South Africa in February
and meeting some of the mothers affected by HIV.
"After spending just a few days with these remarkable women and
learning more about the charity from Mitch, and his lovely wife
Annie Lennox, I wanted to do as much as I could," Beckham said in a
statement.
"It really was a life-changing experience. I've never experienced
anything like it."
Sub-Saharan Africa is still the region hardest hit by HIV, with 24.7
million HIV-positive people in 2013.
Women account for 58 percent of those living with HIV in the region,
which is also home to 85 percent of pregnant women living with HIV,
according to UNAIDS.
Nevertheless there have been great strides in reducing the number of
children infected with HIV worldwide - from 580,000 in 2001 to
240,000 in 2013.
Yet stigma, under-funded and under-equipped healthcare systems and
problems engaging men are some of the obstacles to ending the
epidemic in Africa, Besser said.
(Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters,
covers underreported humanitarian, human rights, corruption and
climate change issues. Visit www.trust.org)
Beckham's iconic, white Dolce and Gabbana dress worn for the
2003 MTV Video Music Awards is just one of the items to go under
the hammer in aid of mothers2mothers (m2m), a charity that works
to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to babies in
nine countries including South Africa, Swaziland and Kenya.
