Welcome to FXB.org

FXB International Training Program at University of Medicine and Dentistry fo New Jersey

Mission: Delivering comprehensive care that is community-based, child-centered, family-focused, to children affected by HIV and AIDS.

In 1990, Albina du Boisrouvray met James Oleske, a New Jersey doctor who was pioneering a new treatment for children with AIDS. Albina du Boisrouvray, Dr. Oleske and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey began a partnership for children affected by HIV and AIDS. A $1.2 million grant was awarded to Dr. Oleske to act as the Chair in Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Diseases. The program also received an initial grant of $350,000 annually to create the FXB International Training Program (FXB ITP).
Albina du Boisrouvray endowed then the François-Xavier Bagnoud Chair in Community Nursing. Mary Boland was appointed the first François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor. "We did this because we believe that the work Mary is carrying out together with Dr. James Oleske is vital for the health care workers of the world who treat children with HIV and AIDS," Albina declared. "We chose to work with Jim and Mary because they combine compassion with the highest medical competency."

The FXB House in Washington D.C.

In 1990, anti-retroviral therapy for HIV was not available and AIDS-affected children were suffered from severe stigmatization. The creation of the FXB House made a statement on both issues, demonstrating that if children affected by AIDS were provided with the appropriate care, they would live longer and be better prepared to ward off opportunistic infections.

The concept underlying the FXB House addresses a unique and growing need to provide nurturing, stable, loving homes for children affected by the virus. Caregivers have been trained to complete the medical, supervisory, and familial duties required of them. The FXB House in Washington is administered by TERRIFIC, inc. (Temporary Emergency Residential Resource Institute for Families in Crisis), a long-standing local, community-based, non-profit organization.

The Global AIDS Policy Coalition (GAPC)

Founded in 1991 with funding from FXB, the GAPC started as a group of 18 specialists from 17 countries with reputations for progressive thinking on public health and AIDS. Brought together by Dr. Jonathan Mann, they positioned GAPC as offering an independent analysis of the AIDS pandemic – free from government interference.

GAPC began work on AIDS in the World, a pioneering analysis of AIDS and its ramifications. Mann directed this work along with numerous policy papers and strategies that the group prepared for major AIDS summits and conferences that took place in the early 1990s.

"AIDS in the World", the first independent global analysis of AIDS

In June 1992, GAPC announced the results of the first independent analysis of the global pandemic in "AIDS in the World", a 1000-page in-depth document. Dr. Jonathan Mann gave a forceful and alarming presentation and the story made the front page of every important daily in the US and leading papers worldwide.

"AIDS in the World", which remains an important reference work to this day, provided the first reliable figures on the actual and potential extent of the AIDS pandemic, together with analyses of why it spread and possible strategies to deal with the virus.

The François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights

In 1992, Albina du Boisrouvray decided to provide the Harvard School of Public Health with a $20 million grant – its largest single grant at the time. She established at Harvard, The François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, the first academic center to focus exclusively on health and human rights. The Center combines the academic strengths of research and teaching with a strong commitment to service and policy development.

"I needed an instrument of some sort to defend all children in suffering and in sickness and to globally defend their rights at an international level, because I physically simply couldn’t continue to do it piecemeal all over the planet catering to the endless needs and suffering that I encountered in the world, trying to shake up governments and agencies, one by one", said Albina.

The International Conference on Health and Human Rights

At the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Mann and his colleagues successfully engineered an historic conference, the First International Conference on Health and Human Rights, with meeting rooms and halls located in key buildings throughout the Harvard University complex. For three days, more than 350 participants from 42 countries explored the new dimensions of health and human rights and shared their visions of a new global AIDS strategy.

The François-Xavier Bagnoud building at Harvard University

In 1996, the François-Xavier Bagnoud Building was dedicated to the Harvard School of Public Health. The importance of the occasion was further emphasized when Harvard University made it the first in a year-long series of events to celebrate the school’s 75th Anniversary. The theme chosen for the year-long celebration was "Health and Human Rights."