Preventing the spread of HIV in Zimbabwe.
In 1989, Zimbabwean students aged 16 to 19 began a project called the Pledge 25 club. Committing to make at least 25 blood donations before the age of 25, they maintained a healthy lifestyle in order to preserve their donations from being tainted. Their due diligence resulted in the lowering of HIV infection rates among blood donors from 4.45 percent in 1989 to 0.6 percent in 2001 Æ while the general infection rate was higher than 33 percent. This model has been adopted in other countries including Haiti, India, Indonesia, Malawi, the Philippines, Uganda and South Africa. In South Africa, Club 25 now has more than 35,000 members whose rate of HIV is only 0.04 percent.
