Combating HIV/AIDS with fine Italian wines

At the recent G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany the gathered world leaders again pledged their support for Africa - in both alleviating poverty and the plague of HIV/AIDS. The Italian Catholic lay community of Sant’Egidio applauded their efforts, but argued that more must be done. Launched in 2002, their initiative has had major success, one bottle of wine at a time.

Sant’Egidio launched the project WINE FOR LIFE in 2002 to tackle the crisis of HIV/AIDS in Africa. WINE FOR LIFE’s slogan is “Dalle vite, la vita” or “From the corkscrew, the life”. The initiative produces stickers that winemakers buy from Sant’Egidio for 50 cents each. The winemakers then put the stickers on their bottles to let consumers know they’re part of the effort.

With more than 120 participating wines, customers can choose from a wide selection. There are fine wines from the internationally-renown Antinori, Frescobaldi, Ruffino, and San Felice collections as well as the lesser known San Giorgo Rosso del Umbria and Villa Medoro Adrano Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. The Sant’Egidio website has photos of the etiquettes of all participating wine labels.

Sant’Egidio puts the money raised from the stickers directly into their efforts. The proceeds from the sale of 100 stickers helps deliver a healthy baby to an HIV-positive mother, the proceeds from 1,000 stickers affords an adult suffering from the disease  a years worth of medical attention, enabling them to care for their family. 

Sant'Egidio wins Balzan Peace Prize

Sant’Egidio has been able to provide extensive medical treatment including the triple cocktail and their project has produced results. They say that with 97 percent of babies born healthy to HIV-positive mothers and more than 9 out of 10 adults returning to normal life undergoing medical care, they have “the most effective program in sub-Saharan Africa for treating AIDS.” Sant’Egidio has been the subject of a World Health Organization (WHO) case-study and even won the 2004 Balzan Peace Prize.

Nearly 25 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are HIV-positive according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, with the disease growing more rapidly among girls and women than men. This has caused countries like Zimbabwe to have a life expectancy of only 34-years for women, the world's lowest. It has also produced more than 12 million orphans across the continent. Especially devastating, the disease is robbing Africa of the young population it needs to build its political, economic and social structures. 

Based in the Roman working class neighborhood of Trastevere since 1968, Sant’Egidio counts more than 50,000 members and is active in humanitarian projects in over 70 countries. They have been active in promoting peace and reconciliation efforts in war-torn regions through intercultural, inter-religious dialogue. Sant’Egidio hosted the 1992 Rome General Peace Accords ending the civil war in Mozambique and the 1995 Sant’Egidio Platform, which brought together the major Algerian opposition parties.