FIRELIGHT FOUND ATION

DONOR PROFILE
Anu Gupta, MD, Director, Corporate Contributions
Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies Contribution Fund
“Many organizations can point to the statistics on children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and express concern, but the Firelight
Foundation’s programming is having an impact,” says Anu Gupta, MD, Director, Corporate Contributions for Johnson & Johnson.
Through its corporate philanthropy program, Johnson & Johnson—the global health care company in business for more than 120
years—enabled grants to 12 Firelight grantee-partners in Fiscal Year 2007. With support from Johnson & Johnson, grassroots
organizations in seven Sub-Saharan African countries were able to provide children affected by HIV/AIDS with a variety of programs
including health care, education, and vocational training.
“The focus of our HIV/AIDS giving is to partner with communities on programs that prevent HIV/AIDS and reduce the burden of AIDS on
women and their families,” says Gupta.
The company’s specific priorities in this area include preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, preventing HIV infections among
at-risk women and youth, as well as caring for orphans and vulnerable children. Overall, they support more than 100 philanthropic
programs that address the needs of those affected by HIV/AIDS in upwards of 40 countries.
In partnership with the Elizabeth Glaser AIDS Foundation, for example, Johnson & Johnson funded programs to prevent mother-to-child
transmission that served more than 260,000 pregnant women in Cameroon, China, India, Russia, and Zimbabwe in 2006. Together
with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the company funds programs in Botswana, India, Nigeria, Vietnam,
and along the Dominican Republic/Haiti border, to address the dual epidemic of gender-based violence and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
In addition to its HIV/AIDS work, Johnson & Johnson’s current priorities include saving and improving the lives of women and children,
and building the skills of health care providers, primarily through education. The company’s philanthropic mission is “making lifechanging,
long-term differences in human health by targeting the world’s major health-related issues.”
Johnson & Johnson has a long history of philanthropy, dating back to the donation of medical and surgical supplies to victims of the
San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Over the years, its emphasis has broadened beyond disaster relief, but the company’s giving
continues to be rooted in a philosophy of fulfilling its responsibility to the communities in which it does business. Johnson & Johnson
sought out Firelight Foundation as a partner. “We approach groups we feel are working effectively in a particular area,” Dr. Gupta says.
Johnson & Johnson was impressed by Firelight Foundation’s visibility at the International AIDS Conference and other key meetings,
where staff and Board members worked to draw attention to the importance of community care rather than institutional care for
orphans. “There are not many voices speaking on behalf of the needs of orphans and vulnerable children across Africa—Firelight is
speaking for them,” she notes.