The fashion industry has teamed up with a charity Born Free to create a collection to wipe out AIDS among infants in South Africa, and Harlem resident and Ethiopian model Liya Kebede, dedicated to maternal health in her native country, has designed several pieces for the collection.
Born Free, an organization fighting the mother-to-child transmission of HIV, sells an exclusive collection of items ranging from Alexander McQueen baby blankets to matching mother-and-child skirts by Prada. All proceeds from items sold will go toward Born Free.
Vogue magazine featured the fashion-charity collaboration in its May 2014 issue and helped spearhead the collection.
The collection also includes clothing and accessories created by 22 fashion designers who are mothers, including Diane von Furstenberg, Tory Burch, Donatella Versace, Carolina Herrera, Stella McCartney and Victoria Beckham.
All the items, designed for both women and children, and based on the work of Kenyan artist Wangechi Muti, are being sold on Shopbop.com, a fashion site by Amazon.
More than 700 infants are born each day in sub-Saharan Africa with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Half of all HIV-positive children who fail to receive proper treatment will die before they turn two…
More than 700 infants are born each day in sub-Saharan Africa with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Half of all HIV-positive children who fail to receive proper treatment will die before they turn two, according to Born Free, which had no problem getting designers involved in their project.
In addition, the rate of mother-to-child infection hovers around 260,000 new cases per year. That’s a lot of children born with a serious disadvantage (almost 50% of whom won’t make it past their 2nd birthday, according to Born Free) that could have easily been prevented. It takes just one pill a day during pregnancy & breastfeeding to stop HIV transmission to a child.
“We’re ensuring that every child is born free of HIV, meaning aiming to end mother-to-child transmission of AIDs by 2015,” Kebede said.
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