Three Stanford students who took the year off to form a group called FACE AIDS report tremendous progress fundraising, increasing awareness and building a grassroots network of student activists.

Before going to Africa last summer, the three were only passing acquaintances who shared a mutual interest in global health. A Stanford-sponsored summer visit to a Zambian refugee camp where they met and talked with HIV/AIDS pandemic victims, however, brought them close. Their relationship soon evolved into a partnership as Katie Bollbach, Jonny Dorsey and Lauren Young decided to stop out of school to build their non-profit group last August.

The trio, who will be juniors when they return to campus, said their goal is to raise $1 million and get 200 schools involved in their program selling pins to raise money and awareness.

And they are more than well on their way. By January, they had raised their operating budget for the rest of the year. Also, they have built a team of 30 Stanford students to research foundations from which to request money, recruit student leaders at other campuses and prepare awareness materials for a big public push to launch in April. FACE AIDS chapters have been chartered at 15 other schools, mostly in California. Currently volunteers are talking with representatives from dozens of other schools about setting up their own chapters.

"Right now we are focusing on California, specifically the Bay Area and the greater LA area, but eventually the team will be working with schools from coast to coast," said sophomore Clay Sader, the campus contact coordinator for FACE AIDS.

Dorsey and Young said they are "confident" they will meet their goal to raise $1 million this year. They have arranged enough matching grants to offer a three-to-one match at every school. Sterling Stamos, an area investment firm run by Stanford alumni, pledged to match the first $10,000 raised. California State Controller and gubernatorial candidate Steve Westly also said he will match up to $2,500 in gifts. MTV gave the group a $1,000 grant. The three founders hope the snowballing effect will take hold as they continue to earn more pledges.

While Dorsey and Young have concentrated on organizing national support, Bollbach has established two cooperatives in and near the village of Mwange in Zambia. They are making pins that will be sold to students when the campaign officially begins in April.

"Katie has been on the ground in Africa for almost two years," Dorsey said. "She is extremely focused, sensitive and caring."

Bollbach plans to return to the U.S. in April, after inspecting a clinic managed by Partners in Health, the philanthropic group that will disperse the money FACE AIDS raises.

Professors and students who have worked with the trio said that this is not something they are doing to pad their resumes. They saw first-hand a catastrophe unfolding on the other side of the planet and could not let themselves go back to the daily monotony of class on the Farm, those who know them said. They had to do something about what they saw, and they have.

Microbiology and Immunology Prof. Robert Siegel, who has been counseling the group and advising Dorsey and Young since they returned from Africa, called the stateside duo "inexhaustible" and said in an interview that they remain "completely devoted to the project."

"They have continued to impress me in their ability to raise awareness, interest, money and to get other students actively involved," he said.

"Not only are these two individuals so passionate about what they are doing, but they also have such great presence, and great personalities too," said junior Wilson Irungu, the corporate fundraiser for the group. "They are both so modest and focused on achieving their mission that I sometimes wonder if they ever reflect on the grandness of their mission<\p>--<\p>they are saving lives."

"FACE AIDS is not your typical student group," Sader said. "Going from three people with a dream to 200 schools raising a total of $1 million is many orders of magnitude more complicated than what the ordinary student imagines when they think of starting a charity organization."

Other students said they were inspired and motivated to get involved because of the passion and energy they saw in Dorsey and Young.

"It was their vision, their countless hours of deliberating, discussing and planning that has made FACE AIDS a reality," junior Jordan Lodato, the director of external relations of the group, wrote in an e-mail to The Daily. "It was their charisma, devotion, and confidence that made each member of our team jump on board."

Junior Mayuree Rao is helping write grant proposals to raise matching grants for pin sales from foundations and corporations.

"I was motivated to join because I was excited about being involved in such an innovative organization that has clear-cut objectives in contributing to a solution to HIV/AIDS in Africa," Rao said. "I love knowing that my work with FACE AIDS has a clear impact and target in fulfilling the mission of the organization."

"Even if I had never heard about the AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, I am confident that a single conversation with Lauren and Jonny would have transformed me into an activist almost immediately," Lodato added. "They are that inspirational."

Originally, the group had planned to make small grants to community organizations in Africa, but Dorsey said FACE AIDS recognized it was not feasible to personally distribute the money. So they teamed up with Partners in Health, a renowned global heath non-profit organization associated with Harvard Medical School.

"Partners in Health is the best organization fighting AIDS in Africa," Dorsey said, pointing to the perks of low overhead administrative costs and a focus on making clinics more self-sustainable.

The students contend that the best way to prevent the spread of the disease is to treat it. This has multiple benefits: it decreases the social stigma, encourages those at risk to get tested and helps deal with other medical maladies.

"The best prevention in our opinion is treatment," Young said. "People won't get tested until they know there is a treatment. Drugs becoming available to only a few people in a camp changes the way everyone thinks about AIDS."

The Zambian government provides the drugs and Partners in Health manages the clinics where they are distributed. The students believe that any donation can help save lives.

"We are humble about the fact that $1 million is not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things," Dorsey said. "When Steve Westly made that $2,500 grant, you have to realize that it is eight people's lives saved with anti-retroviral drugs."

"There is terrible pessimism in the U.S. in talking about Africa," he added. "If you believe you can actually make a difference, then you really can by implementing good programs and by doing things that have been shown to work."

As a native African, Irungu said he "got tired of watching HIV/AIDS undermine achievements in human development in Africa."

"I felt that, in FACE AIDS, I would get a voice to reach out to people at Stanford and beyond, and let them know how the pandemic is impacting negatively on demography, households, social sector, productivity and the macro economy," he said.

For the three founders, it is a full-time job to meet their ambitious goals. Dorsey and Young said they have given up much of their social lives to channel so much energy into the project. Neither regrets taking the year off. They hope to return to school next year but plan to remain very active in the group.

"I know in my heart it will work, but it's a big project," Young said. "It's hard not being on campus sometimes. We love our friends, and we love our classes. I like doing something that is ambitious. We are both in our element doing this, and for me it is incredibly fulfilling."

"I have never worked on something that I have felt is so important before," she said. "We are going to save lives and get other students involved in something that saves lives."

"Jonny and Lauren are 'taking the year off' because they refuse to give their work<\p>--<\p>whether academic or philanthropic<\p>--<\p>anything less than their best efforts," Lodato said. "Having observed the time, energy and work they put into FACE AIDS, it would be no surprise to me if their next academic year was more of a 'year off' than this one will be."

As the group gains momentum, it is starting to get noticed. Last week, The San Francisco Chronicle reported on their efforts. In two weeks, Dorsey will travel to Boston and New York to make his pitch for FACE AIDS. On his agenda: a meeting with world-renowned development expert and Columbia Economics Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, among others.

Those interested in getting involved with FACE AIDS may e-mail Lauren@faceaids.org.