AIDS-Fondet works with HIV and AIDS – and topics relevant to HIV and AIDS – in Denmark as well as internationally.

AIDS-Fondet is guided by the principle “Nothing About Us Without Us” and Key Populations are represented at most levels in the organization.

This helps shape a strong conscience against stigma and discrimination – and constantly checking the norm against our lived realities is key to most of the work that AIDS-Fondet does.

In Denmark
AIDS-Fondet runs clinics for sexual health (Checkpoints) in major cities, offering counselling and testing for everyone between 15 and 29 years of age and for the LGBT+ community at large.

We work in close collaboration with the Danish authorities – national bodies as well as local government structures – and offer other services related to sexual health and wellbeing subject to local agreements.

For four decades the AIDS-Fondet has been offering grants to researchers enabling them to pursue scientific studies relevant to HIV and AIDS – studies carried out over the years range from anthropological to medicinal and quite a few things in between.

In the World
Internationally (see strategy) AIDS-Fondet works with global advocacy to ensure that resources and medicines are distributed fairly and that research in an AIDS vaccine and new prevention methods receives political interest and funding.

AIDS-Fondet also works with local partners in Malawi and Uganda on longer-term projects aimed at increasing capacity – and occasionally on short term projects with a focus on quick and immediate actions against structures or beliefs fueling the AIDS epidemic. In the 2010s AIDS-Fondet has worked with partners in Ukraine, Zambia, and Ethiopia.

Historically
AIDS-Fondet was founded in 1985 by two medical doctors – and a 500,000 DKK inheritance.  It is firmly rooted in the activism that grew out of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s in Denmark.

The foundation is shaped by the despair, the indignation, and ultimately the resolution to act by those who were affected directly or indirectly by the epidemic in the early days.

Historically the foundation has had inclusion at its heart and the fight against structures that perpetuate, legitimize or apologise for stigma and discrimination permeates everything the foundation does.