Boston Children's Hospital AIDS Program

The Children's Hospital AIDS Program (CHAP) at Boston Children's Hospital trains local, national and international health care workers.

Our clinicians reach out to train caregivers throughout many developing countries where the AIDS crisis has grown, including:

• Botswana
• Cambodia
• China
• Jamaica
• Nigeria
• South Africa
• Thailand
• Vietnam

We hope our continued training efforts with health care workers around the globe will help them provide better treatment options to the people in their country battling HIV and AIDS.

Beginning in 2006, the Children's Hospital AIDS Program (CHAP) has worked with patients' family members, friends, and volunteers to create an annual AIDS Memorial Quilt.

The quilt was created to honor the lives of many of CHAP's young patients who passed away from the disease.

Prior to the discovery of effective HIV medications and recent advances in HIV/AIDS research, the majority of children with AIDS succumbed to the disease.

Unfortunately, many children who were followed in our program were diagnosed before live-saving treatments were discovered. Our records indicate that approximately 80 children from our program have passed away since 1985.

To honor and remember the lives of the children we have lost to the disease, we invite their family members and friends to create panels representing their deceased loved ones. Each panel is unique and heartfelt and reflects the memories they have of the child.

Our quilt project has been modeled after the national AIDS Memorial Quilt that was created in 1987.

History of the AIDS Memorial Quilt

On Oct. 11, 1987, the AIDS Memorial Quilt was officially unveiled on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It covered a space larger than a football field and included 1,920 panels. Half a million people visited the quilt that weekend.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a poignant memorial, a powerful tool for preventing new HIV infections and the largest ongoing community arts project in the world.

The Boston Children's Hospital Quilt will be an ongoing project and will be displayed every Dec. 1, on World AIDS Day. If you would like to help us with our quilt or learn more about it, please contact us at 617-355-6832.

The Children's Hospital AIDS Program Quilt Project made possible by The Mannion Fund. Special thanks to:

Mabel Badger, Marjorie Dunn, Laine Gifford, Pat Hassed, Linda Lesyna, Jerry McDonough, Carol Packard, and Pat Paraboschi.

Additional thanks to:

Sandra Burchett, Sally Cheek, Fran Colon, Rachel Diness, Rosemary Galvin, Malvys Jaikaran, Nancy Karthas, Cathy Kneut, Jennifer Leach, Cynthia Levin, Lynne Lewis, Helen Mahoney West, Charlotte Mao, Cecilia Matos, Ken McIntosh, Jackie Miranda, Elizabeth Nolan, Michelle Papazian, and Mark Tourtellot.