After a six-decade career on stage, Elton John was in the middle of his farewell tour. But on Monday, he and his husband, David furniture, is announcing a project that proves his legacy has only just begun. More than 30 years after its founding, the Elton John AIDS Foundation is announcing the Rocket Fund, an initiative to raise $125 million for the fight against the virus that has caused a world-changing pandemic. world in the 1980s and continues to affect millions to this day.
The organization has an ambitious goal for the Rocket Foundation: to use the money raised to fund projects that aim to eliminate AIDS by 2030—and a group of big names in philanthropy have been Signing donations and working with the foundation, including David Geffen, Tani Austin, And Donatella Versace. On Monday, the designer announced that she would be matching Pride Month donations up to $300,000. In addition to the fundraising, the foundation launched a social media awareness campaign called #InnerElton, asking celebrities and creators to share their views on some iconic looks John’s icon.
In an interview, Versace said that she wanted to remind people that the fight against HIV/AIDS is not over, despite the amazing progress that has been made with modern medicine. “It’s very, very important that we keep talking about it because this is a very, very bad disease—you can die from it—and not everyone has access to treatments. .”
She says she sees the fund as an opportunity to engage a younger generation already excited about 1980s and 1990s fashion and culture into the fight that has shaped her work during that time. and the life of her late brother Gianni. It’s also a way to honor John for the work he’s done to combat stigma in the terrifying environment the AIDS crisis has created.
Versace said she was honored to see the resurgence of vintage style on the red carpet and that she also wanted to share her memories of that time. She said: “I saw first-hand what was happening from the very beginning. “I have lost a lot of friends, Gianni has lost a lot of his friends and everyone is helpless. Elton is one of the few who will stand up. He has a background and has put it to good use.”
In a recent interview, Furnish explained the reasoning behind promoting new awareness and solutions. “We really want to rekindle the conversation around AIDS and make people aware of what can be done—and how positive the news really is, if we focus on what we need do.”
One impetus for the foundation came from the fact that with treatment, HIV can be managed like a chronic health condition, and some drugs can make the virus undetectable in a person’s blood. patients, completely preventing the progression to AIDS. But according to the organization, 13% of people with HIV in the United States do not know their status, and many have been diagnosed without adequate access to potentially life-saving treatments. Finally, the Rocket Fund will support access to HIV prevention and treatment services, such as testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and antiretroviral therapies for 1 million people worldwide. around the world.
Furnish adds: “The earlier you detect and target people living with HIV without knowing it, and the sooner you put them on treatment, the more successful it will be. “The treatments are very effective and very simple.”
Furnish says he and John are honored to have Versace join the Rocket Fund. “Donatella continues to be one of Elton’s closest friends and a friend of our family. Gianni and Donatella both worked and lived in fashion throughout the ’80s and ’90s so they’ve seen first-hand the ravages of this disease,” he said. “Having someone like her involved brings her voice into the community to start the conversation with ease. We need role models through the Rocket Foundation and through the Let Your Inner Elton Out campaign.”
Furnish said the fund wants to get as many people into the campaign as possible. “We want as many speakers as possible, because the more daily conversations people from all walks of life have about HIV/AIDS, the more progress we will make,” he said. than. “We will get where we need to go faster and stronger.”
Ultimately, the fight against AIDS is becoming the legacy of John and his family, and Furnish says they are fighting until the very end. “There is no way out for Elton, me or our family other than when AIDS ends. That’s our exit point. If everyone knows their condition and everyone has access to medicine, there will continue to be a lot of work that needs to be done so that people can take medicine to help them survive,” he said. “We’re absolutely in it for the long haul.”
