AHF launches #LifeGift social media campaign

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) launched a text-to-donate and social media outreach campaign today designed to educate the public regarding facts about the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, to raise public awareness about what actions they can take to make a difference and to raise funds for AHF's lifesaving HIV testing and treatment programs. For the entire week of World AIDS Day (December 1st), the group will send out messages hourly via Twitter, as well as through other social media outlets, including Facebook, Tumblr and LinkedIn.

All are welcome to participate in the World AIDS Day effort -- either by texting "LIFEGIFT" to "20222" to donate $10.00 or by joining AHF's "Tweet with us" campaign. AHF will be tweeting key facts about the global HIV/AIDS epidemic from its Twitter account (@aidshealthcare) and listing ways people can help in the fight.

Sample tweets include:

• 34 million people are living with #HIV #lifegift #WorldAIDSDay
• 2.7M new #HIV infections last year incl 390K children #lifegift #WorldAIDSDay
• Africa hardest hit by #HIV w/ 22.9M HIV+ people #lifegift #WorldAIDSDay
• 16.6M children orphaned due to #HIV & AIDS #lifegift #WorldAIDSDay

Participants are invited to find out more on the campaign's webpage www.aidshealth.org/WorldAIDSDay

"We hope that AHF's World AIDS Day twitter campaign has something for everyone and empowers all who come in contact with it to take some action this week -- whether by donating or by getting the message out through their social networks. As with all donations to AIDS Healthcare Foundation, 96 cents of every $1 raised will go directly toward providing care and treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide," said Lori Yeghiayan, Associate Director of Communications for AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

"It was very important to us for the campaign to be primarily about education. We know that around this time of year many people long to take action and make a difference. As Twitter has shown us time and time again, each of us has the capacity to use our voice online to advocate for a cause and change the world one person at a time. In this case, we hope the global community will join AHF in spreading the lifesaving message that we still have a lot of work to do to win the fight against HIV/AIDS."

In a testament to the growing worldwide support for the HIV/AIDS cause, AIDS Healthcare Foundation's social media presence has grown rapidly in the last two years. In addition to a presence on Twitter, the organization also has a popular blog on Tumblr. Its Facebook community is 419,582 strong and includes people from all over the world. The countries in which our Facebook and Twitter communities reside include: India, Indonesia, United States, Kenya, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, Greece, Mexico and Canada, among many others.